bobbish, a. dial. and slang.
(ˈbɒbɪʃ)
[Cf. bob a., bob v.3]
Well; in good health and spirits.
| 1780 R. Tomlinson Slang Pastoral 3, I was so good-natur'd, so bobbish and gay. 1813 [cf. bobbishly]. 1819 Scott in Lockhart xliv. (1842) 394, I trust you will find me pretty bobbish. 1839 Dickens Nich. Nick. lvii, ‘The cows is well, and the boys is bobbish.’ 1851 De Quincey Ld. Carlisle on Pope Wks. XIII. 5 Finding himself ‘pretty bobbish’ on the morning after the memorable night in the Black Hole of Calcutta. 1862 Trollope Rachel Ray II. xiii. 268 Pretty bobbish, thankee, Mr. Rowan; and how's yourself? 1928 Galsworthy Swan Song iii. vi. 258 He did not feel so ‘bobbish’ before this third encounter with that fellow. |
Hence ˈbobbishly adv. Well, fairly, briskly.
| 1813 Scott in Lockhart x. (Chandos) 223 The book has gone off here very bobbishly. 1819 ― ibid. xlv. IV. 285 You will find me looking pretty bobbishly. 1936 Wodehouse Laughing Gas xxix. 304 ‘Oh, so you know about that, too?’ She laughed, though not too bobbishly. |