dob

Etymology 1

Uncertain.

verb

1. (slang, chiefly Australia, New Zealand) To report (a person) to someone in authority for a wrongdoing.
   I’ll dob on you if you break in.
   You dobbed me in! — I never did!
   Students often claimed that an act of informing was just ‘dobbing as a joke’ and therefore ‘not really dobbing’. 1983, James Macpherson, The Feral Classroom, page 107
   1998, Supreme Court of Victoria, Council of Law Reporting in Victoria, Victorian Reports, Volume 4, page 372, The deceased “dobbed” him in about drugs to police on two occasions. This resulted in police seizing some of his drugs. She “dobbed” him in because he would not give her amphetamines. He may have told people that she “dobbed” him in.
   Alex was concerned that if others thought he had dobbed, things would get even worse for him. Dobbing was the worst thing a student could do. 2006, Ian Findley, Shared Responsibility: Beating Bullying in Australian Schools, page 67
2. (slang, chiefly Australia) To do one's share; to contribute.
   We all dobbed in for a gift when he retired.
   He′d never take payment in cash for tracking, but when they dobbed in for presentations such as the fridge he accepted them shyly, abashedly,[…]. 1968, Louise Elizabeth Rorabacher, Aliens in Their Land: The Aborigine in the Australian Short Story, page 80
   The miners had all dobbed in to buy a few bottles of beer which they left in the creek overnight to cool. 1976, Margaret Paice, Colour in the Creek, page 53
3. (slang, chiefly Australia) To nominate a person, often in their absence, for an unpleasant task.
   I arrived just after the meeting had started and found myself dobbed in to take the minutes.
   1977, University of British Columbia, Canadian Literature, Issues 74-77, page 108, Writing reviews reminds me of the time I got dobbed in to be the judge at the Poochera sheep dog trials. It′s easy they said, sinking beers in the shade of the lean-to, just watch the dog.
   Those who moved into organisational roles sometimes did it unwittingly, even unwillingly, as they were ‘dobbed’ in for tasks, succeeded and so it went on. 2001, Kerreen M. Reiger, Sheila Kitzinger, Our Bodies, Our Babies: The Forgotten Women's Movement, page 153
4. (slang, Northern Ireland) To play truant
   Parents were taken to court 189 times in the Western region over the past five years because their children were ‘dobbing’ school.¶ The Education Minister John O’Dowd revealed the number of parents taken to court due to children being absent from school […] 2015-10-11, Kevin Mullan, “189 parents in dock for ‘dobbing’”, in Londonderry Sentinel

noun

1. A small amount of something, especially paste.
   Put a dob of butter on the potato, please.
   1903, Rudyard Kipling, The Tabu Tale, in Just So Stories (in the U.S. Scribner edition, but omitted from most British editions), ‘Consequence will be, O Tegumai,’ said the Head Chief, ‘that we will make them understand it with sticks and stinging-nettles and dobs of mud; and if that doesn't teach them, we'll draw fine, freehand Tribal patterns on their backs with the cutty edges of mussel-shells. […] ’

Etymology 2

Initialism.

noun

1. Initialism of date of birth.

Etymology 3

Short for do our best. dyb (or dib) and dob were used as abbreviated forms of do your best and do our best in certain Scout chants.

verb

1. (intransitive, sometimes humorous) In the scouting movement, to chant dob to indicate that one will do one's best to follow the scouting laws.
   I used to get through the dibbing and dobbing all right but during the howling I usually rolled over backwards. 2009, Clive James, Unreliable Memoirs, page 54
   Why were there 212 fatalities at the first boy scout camp? There wasn't much dybbing and dobbing at Robert Baden-Powell's first scout camp as the camp in question was in Mafeking and took place during a particularly nasty siege[…] 2009, Justin Pollard, The Interesting Bits