bab

Definitions

1. Initialism of blame avoidance behavior
   abbreviation, alt-of, initialism
2. Synonym of Set (“Egyptian god”).
3. A baby.
   UK, informal
4. ʻAlí Muḥammad (1820–1850), the founder of Bábism.
5. A bait for eels, consisting of a bundle of live worms.
   East-Anglia

Equivalents

Examples

“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.”

“Blame⟳ avoidance behavior (BAB) encompasses all kinds of integrity-protecting activities by officeholders in the face⟳ of potentially blame-attracting events. It is increasingly common for scholars to scrutinize political decisions and their effects in order⟳ to establish⟳ whether, and to what degree, they have⟳ been caused by officeholders’ motivation to avoid⟳ blame⟳. By now, BAB is considered a widespread phenomenon that is essential for a realistic understanding of the nature and workings of political systems.”

“In other words, politicians who feel⟳ distrusted may upweight the risks attached to policy failure, whilst politicians who feel⟳ mistrusted may upweight the risks attached to being ‘caught out’ in their BAB.”

CEFR level