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nverted pendulum consisting of a short vertical flat spring which supports a rod having a bob at the top; -- used for detecting and measuring slight horizontal vibrations of a body to which it is attached.

Foul; fifthy; disgusting. A girdle foul with grease bobscene attire. Dryden.

A nickname for a policeman; -- so called from Sir Robert Peel. [British Slang] See Bobby.

- called also pillar block, or plumber block. -- Pillow lace, handmade lace wrought with bobbins upon a lace pillow. -- Pillow of a plow, a crosspiece of wood which serves to raise or lower the beam. -- Pillow sham, an ornamental covering laid over a pillow when not in use. -- Pillow slip, a pillowcase.…

Lace made by hand with bobbins on a pillow.

A quill or reed on which thread or yarn is wound; a bobbin; also, the wound yarn on a weaver's shuttle; also, the reel of a fishing rod. [Scot.]

a line, and used by builders, etc., to indicate a vertical direction; a plummet; a plumb bob. See Plumb line, below. Plumb bob. See Bob, 4. -- Plumb joint, in sheet-metal work, a lap joint, fastened by solder. -- Plumb level. See under Level. -- Plumb line. (a) The cord by which a plumb bob is suspended; a plummet.…

A plumb bob or a plumb line. See under Plumb, n.

To move quickly up and down; to bob up and down, as a cork on rough water; also, to bubble. Cotton.

A sort of ancient trimming of tinsel and thread for women's gowns; -- called also bobbinwork. [Obs.] Piers Plowman.

l American partridges belonging to Colinus, Callipepla, and allied genera, especially the bobwhite (called Virginia quail, and Maryland quail), and the California quail (Calipepla Californica).

The bobolink.

h is flattened out under pressure. Called also pith paper. -- Rice troupial (Zoöl.), the bobolink. -- Rice water, a drink for invalids made by boiling a small quantity of rice in water. -- Rice-water discharge (Med.), a liquid, resembling rice water in appearance, which is vomited, and discharged from the bowels, in…

The bobolink.

machine, a machine for drawing and twisting roves and twisting roves and winding them on bobbin for the spinning machine.

rmal pattern. "An old set-stiched chair, valanced, and fringed with party-colored worsted bobs." Sterne.

he thread is twisted, and on which, when twisted, it is wound; also, the pin on which the bobbin is held in a spinning machine, or in the shuttle of a loom.

ing spinner, a machine for spinning, in which the twist, given to the yarn by a revolving bobbin, is regulated by the drag of a small metal loop which slides around a ring encircling the bobbin, instead of by a throstle.

The lowest class of people; the rabble. Cf. Rag, tag, and bobtail, under Bobtail. If the tag-rag people did not clap him and hiss him, I am no true man. Shak.

ving a tail; having (such) a tail or (so many) tails; -- chiefly used in composition; as, bobtailed, longtailed, etc. Snouted and tailed like a boar. Grew.