[Ads-l] dob (someone in), v.

Arnold M. Zwicky zwicky at STANFORD.EDU
Mon Oct 31 23:55:30 UTC 2016


> On Oct 31, 2016, at 4:18 PM, Chris Waigl <chris at lascribe.net> wrote:
> 
> So my spouse comes down the stairs yesterday and says she has a question
> about a word. An English word. A contact she is going to work with during
> an upcoming (international) meeting wrote her that he "has dobbed [her] in
> for a session with [person] about [complicated network security topic]".
> The sense was something along the lines of "penciled her in" or "scheduled
> her". Wictionary has a few senses of dob (v.), usually with the preposition
> in, one of which is "To nominate a person, often in their absence, for an
> unpleasant task", which is probably what we're dealing with. It's "chiefly
> Australian", which fits because the speaker works for an organisation that
> operates in the Asia/Pacific region. I don't have access to Macquarie.

my Macquarie says:

v., dobbed, dobbing. Colloq.  -v.t. 1. to betray, report (someone), as for a misdemeanour (fol. by in). 2. to nominate (someone absent) for an unpleasant task (fol. by in). 3 Football. to kick, usu. accurately, esp. in shooting for goal: he's dobbed another goal. 4. dob in, to contribute. 5. dob on, to inform against; betray.  -v.i. 6. dob in, to contribute money to a common fund: we'll all dob in and buy him a present.
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