dobber

English

Pronunciation

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɒbə(ɹ)

Noun

dobber (plural dobbers)

1. Alternative form of dauber (“marker pen used for bingo cards”)
   • 2007, “Fluorescent Adolescent”, in Johanna Bennett, Alex Turner (lyrics), Favourite Worst Nightmare, performed by Arctic Monkeys:

     Said she wasn't going but she went still / Likes her gentlemen not to be gentle / Was it a Mecca dobber or a betting pencil?

2. (UK, derogatory) A member of the working class in Scotland or Ireland who is seen as undereducated, with poor taste, especially in clothes, and poor social skills; closely connected to chav.
3. (Australia, UK, derogatory) One who dobs (informs against or implicates to authority).

   Nikki is such a dobber, she told the teacher that I hit Karen in the playground.

   • 1999, William De Maria, Deadly Disclosures: Whistleblowing and the Ethical Meltdown of Australia, page 16:

     In awakening us to our powerlessness, whistleblowers produce all sorts of crisscrossed emotions. Should we respond to them as truth-bearing ethical citizens, or spiteful, griping dobbers?

   • 2010, Lisa Heidke, What Kate Did Next, page 125:

     ‘Not only that,’ Graeme continued, ‘but Simone′s a dobber – and no-one likes a dobber, do they, K? […] ’

   • 2011, James Morton, Susanna Lobez, Gangland Melbourne, page 95:

     The question was whether the dobber had simply dobbed or whether he had planted the weapons.

4. (British, informal) Any small electronic device that plugs directly into a larger one, such as a wireless scoring system in fencing or a USB mass storage device.
5. (British, Ireland, chiefly dialect) A large marble.
   • 2004, Austin O'Donovan, O'Donovan from Garryowen, page 37:

     They were the biggest rosary beads I ever saw, the beads were the size of big marbles or dobbers or taws. Dobbers and taws we used to play with in the channels beside the footpaths, when we used to play the road games.

6. (US, regional) A float (as used by an angler).
   • 2007, William G. Tapply, Trout Eyes: True Tales of Adventure, Travel, and Fly-Fishing, page 191:

     In attaching this dobber or float, tie it on as short a tippet as you can manage and attach it to the leader from four to six feet above the nymph.

7. A dabchick.

See also

• snitch
• tattletale

Anagrams

• robbed

Dutch

Etymology

From Middle Dutch dobber. This etymology is incomplete. You can help Wiktionary by elaborating on the origins of this term.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈdɔbər/

• Audio

  (file)

• Hyphenation: dob‧ber
• Rhymes: -ɔbər

Noun

dobber m (plural dobbers, diminutive dobbertje n)

1. float (buoyant device used when fishing)

Derived terms

• dobberen
• een harde dobber (“something hard to accomplish or to solve”)

References