bab

Pronunciation

• IPA: /bæb/
• Context: Southern England · Audio
• Rhymes: -æb

Noun UK, informal

1. A baby.

   UK, informal

Noun fishing, hobbies

1. A bait for eels, consisting of a bundle of live worms.

   fishing, East Anglia · Topics: fishing, hobbies, lifestyle

   • The worms were threaded onto the yarn until we had 4 or 5 feet of big juicy worms threaded through. We would coil it all up and put an old rusty nut at the centre and tie it on a bit of string on an old ash pole — this was the bab. - 2006 February 1, John Meiklejohn, “Babbing for eels”, in BBC - WW2 People's War

Verb

1. To fish for eels using a bab.

   intransitive, fishing, East Anglia · Topics: fishing, hobbies, lifestyle

   • The babbers follow the eels, and you may see fifteen boats as close together as possible, babbing away, and catching as much as four stone-weight of eels per boat of a night. - 1884, George Christopher Davies, Norfolk Broads and Rivers, W. Blackwood and sons, page 244
   • Sometimes we trolled or set liggers for pike, we seldom babbed for eels, it was such a slimy job. - 1948, William Guy, Mostly Memories: Some Digressions, C. J. Cousland, page 24
   • Another classic example was babbing for eels; he would come along and say — ‘Goodnight for babbing, make you some babs’. - 2006 February 1, John Meiklejohn, “Babbing for eels”, in BBC - WW2 People's War