bobbed

1. 1
   verb

   Simple past and past participle of bob.

   Several apples had bobbed to the surface before the children reached the tub.

   The maid bobbed politely as the guests came through the door.

   Note

   Bob doubles its final b before -ed, like other short verbs ending in one vowel and one consonant. The single form is both the simple past (the cork bobbed) and the participle after have (it had bobbed back up), across every meaning from floating to curtsying. It also spells the haircut adjective: bobbed hair has been cut, not set moving.

2. 2
   adjective

   Of a person, wearing a bob haircut; of hair, cut in a bob.

   A bobbed woman in a green raincoat was waiting at the front desk.

   She came back from the salon newly bobbed, her long braid gone.

   Note

   A haircut word already current in the 1920s: in 1925 Plastics and Molded Products noted the demand for special combs for bobbed hair. Said of people, it sits comfortably before the noun (a young, bobbed woman) and takes a color in front to make compounds such as silver-bobbed. It has no comparative: hair is bobbed or it is not.

Showing meanings only. Show all 2