bab meaning (informal): definition, etymology and quotations

bab

noun

/bæb/

Etymology Clipping of babby (“baby”).

Fishing, Hobbies, Lifestyle East Anglia A bait for eels, consisting of a bundle of live worms.

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

Etymology Clipping of babby (“baby”).

Fishing, Hobbies, Lifestyle East Anglia To fish for eels using a bab.

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:

1 more example

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: