bobbing

Verb

bob (third-person singular simple present bobs, present participle bobbing, simple past and past participle bobbed)

1. (intransitive) To move gently and vertically, in either a single motion or repeatedly up and down, at or near the surface of a body of water, or similar medium.
   • The cork bobbed gently in the calm water.

   Synonyms:

   surge

2. (transitive) To move (something) as though it were bobbing in water.
   • I bobbed my head underwater and saw the goldfish.
   1. (transitive, with-on) To perform oral sex on someone.
      • She bobbed on his knob.
3. To curtsy.
4. To strike with a quick, light blow; to tap.
   • And if any man hapned, by longe sittynge, to slepe, or, by any other countenance, to shewe him selfe to be weary, he was sodaynly bobbed on the face by the seruantes of Nero, […]1531, Thomas Elyot, “In what wise musike may be to a noble man necessarie: and what modestie ought to be therin”, in Ernest Rhys, editor, The Boke Named the Governour […] (Everyman’s Library)...
5. (intransitive) Synonym of blob (“catch eels using worms strung on thread”).
   • After they had had supper Frank said, Do you remember those men whom we saw near Norwich, who sat in small boats all the night long, and with a line in each hand, bobbed for eels?1876, George Christopher Davies, The Swan and Her Crew, page 134

   Synonyms:

   blob

See all 37 meanings of bob