Klryz
Pronunciation guide: IPA symbols, stress and word endings

Vowels

iːseeɪsite / ɛbedæcat
ɑːfatherɒhot (UK)ɔːlawʊput
uːtooʌcupɜːbirdəabout
eɪdayaɪmyɔɪboyaʊnow
əʊ / oʊgo (UK / US)ɪəneareəhairʊətour

Consonants that look unusual

θthinðthisʃsheʒmeasure
tʃchurchdʒjudgeŋsingjyes

p b t d k g f v s z h m n l r w sound as in ordinary English spelling.

Marks

  • ˈ main stress, before the stressed syllable: /ˈwɔːtə/ water · ˌ lighter (secondary) stress: /ˌʌndəˈstænd/ understand
  • ː a long vowel · (r) an r said only in accents that pronounce it (most American, Scottish, Irish)

Common word endings

  • -s / -es (plurals; he/she form of verbs): /s/ after voiceless sounds (cats), /z/ after voiced (dogs), /ɪz/ after s, z, sh, ch, j sounds (buses, watches). Spelling: -es after s, x, z, ch, sh; consonant + y → -ies (city → cities).
  • -ed (past): /t/ after voiceless sounds (walked), /d/ after voiced (played), /ɪd/ after t or d (wanted). Spelling: love → loved, stop → stopped, carry → carried.
  • -ing: make → making, run → running, see → seeing.
  • Irregular: go, went, gone · be, was, been · see, saw, seen · man → men · child → children · mouse → mice.
  • Older (King James) forms: -eth = -s (he loveth = he loves) · -est with “thou” (thou lovest) · spake = spoke.

English Dictionary · 107,383 entries · Sources & licences

bob

UK /bɒb/ · US /bɑb/ verb, noun, adjective, proper noun

Forms bobs bobbing bobbed

  1. verb (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.”
  2. verb (transitive) To move (something) as though it were bobbing in water. “I bobbed my head underwater and saw the goldfish.”
  3. verb (with on) To perform oral sex on someone. “She bobbed on his knob.”
  4. verb To curtsy.
  5. verb To strike with a quick, light blow; to tap.
  6. verb (intransitive) Synonym of blob (“catch eels using worms strung on thread”).
  7. noun A bobbing motion; a quick up and down movement. “a bob of the head”
  8. noun A curtsy.
  9. noun A bobber (buoyant fishing device).
  10. noun Any of various hesperiid butterflies.
  11. noun A bob haircut.
  12. noun Any round object attached loosely to a flexible line, a rod, a body part etc., so that it may swing when hanging from it.
  13. noun The dangling mass of a pendulum or plumb line.
  14. noun The docked tail of a horse.
  15. noun The short runner of a sled.
  16. noun A bobsleigh.
  17. noun A small wheel, made of leather, with rounded edges, used in polishing spoons, etc.
  18. noun A working beam in a steam engine.
  19. verb (transitive) To cut (hair) into a bob haircut. “I got my hair bobbed. How do you like it?”
  20. verb (transitive) To shorten by cutting; to dock; to crop.

Synonyms

surge blob bob cut Party B Jack Joe British shilling shilling bobsled bobsleigh bobber cork bobfloat bobtail dock tail curtsy

Etymology

From Middle English bobben (“to move up and down or back and forth”), of uncertain origin. Compare Scots bob (“to mark, dance with a bobbing motion”), Icelandic boppa (“to wave up and down”), Swedish bobba (“to bob”), Faroese bøbbur (“something that rises or stands up; top”), Dutch dobberen (“to float, bob”).

From Middle English bobbe (“a cluster (of fruit); a twig with its leaves, a spray”), perhaps of Celtic origin (compare Irish baban "tassel, cluster," Gaelic babag).

Blend of blitter object.

Acronym of battery-operated boyfriend, fortuitously spelling out the male given name Bob in the case of the humorous colloquial definition.

Webster’s 1913

  1. noun Anything that hangs so as to play loosely, or with a short abrupt motion, as at the end of a string; a pendant; as, the bob at the end of a kite's tail.
  2. noun A knot of worms, or of rags, on a string, used in angling, as for eels; formerly, a worm suitable for bait.
  3. verb To cause to move in a short, jerking manner; to move (a thing) with a bob. "He bobbed his head." W. Irving.
  4. verb To strike with a quick, light blow; to tap. If any man happened by long sitting to sleep . . . he was suddenly bobbed on the face by the servants. Elyot.

Etymology [An onomatopoetic word, expressing quick, jerky motion; OE. bob bunch, bobben to strike, mock, deceive. Cf. Prov. Eng. bob, n., a ball, an engine beam, bunch, blast, trick, taunt, scoff; as, a v., to dance, to courtesy, to disappoint, OF. bober to mock.]

Etymology [OE. bobben. See Bob, n.]

Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “bob”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details