flobber

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English[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

Etymology 1[edit]

Perhaps a blend of flop +‎ wobble.

Verb[edit]

flobber (third-person singular simple present flobbers, present participle flobbering, simple past and past participle flobbered)

  1. To sag and wobble.
    • 1887, Punch - Volumes 93-96, page 45:
      And the fish flobbered back with a flop, JACK'!
    • 1957, The Saturday Evening Post - Volume 230, page 74:
      The aide raised a fast-clenched fist to his mouth, flobbered his throat muscles in a horrible spasm of crimson-faced control, repressed his cough silently and looked briefly toward heaven.
    • 1963, Andrew Sinclair, The paradise bum, page 80:
      My cheeks flobber up and down while my arms whirl like electric fans.
    • 1967, James Warner Bellah, The Journal of Colonel De Lancey, page 79:
      Hornsby's Adam's apple flobbered but he did not answer.
    • 1978, James Thurber, Further fables for our time, page 2:
      And she began flobbering, almost imperceptibly, toward the scrubby brown growth beyond the sand and toward the sun.
    • 1990, Richard Francis, The Land where Lost Things Go by Olive Watson, page 227:
      They flobber as they walk with their fat damp flabby feet.
    • 1991, Wilbur Sanders, The Big Wolves, page 101:
      He flobbered and flumped all over chairs, and he talked endlessly in that rapid, insinuating, confidential marshmallow voice of his - so swift to compassion!
    • 2002, A. M. Jolly, Grumble Soup, →ISBN:
      I've never seen a blimp close-up. It bobbled. Slowly. It flobbered. It was a bit like a whale acting coy -- or one of the hippopotami in pink tutus in Fantasia.
    • 2006, Patricia Marks, The 'Arry Ballads: An Annotated Collection of the Verse Letters, →ISBN, page 69:
      And when he had hooked a fine perch, and Miss BELL made a dash at the line, And the fish flobbered back with a flop, JACK'S escape from a cuss cut it fine.
    • 2012, Steve Turner, Amber Waves and Undertow, →ISBN:
      So we proceeded at chastened speed, the dust reduced enough that our headlights showed Ross's flattened tire as it flobbered joltingly around the rim.
    • 2013 May 31, Charlotte Higgins, “Venice Biennale diary: dancing strippers and inflatable targets”, in The Guardian[1]:
      Since it's inflatable, various artworld wags have been plotting how to shoot a dart into its side and watch it flobber down like a great big burst balloon.

Etymology 2[edit]

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Noun[edit]

flobber (plural flobbers)

  1. A pouting (Trisopterus luscus)
Translations[edit]