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

[Barretts Mail]

Perhaps “volunteer” in AmE. BB

> On 31 Oct 2016, at 16:18, 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. The
> OED relates it to dab (v.), but only has the specialised sense dob on
> someone = inform on someone, betray.
> 
> I'm somewhat doubtful that the episode indicates migratory tendencies on
> the part of this word, but just in case others have noticed it, let it be
> noted here.
> 
> Chris

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