babber

Definitions

1. A baby.
2. A fisherman using babs (“baits consisting of bundles of live worms”) to catch eels.
   East-Anglia
3. A friend.

Examples

“We began the business of settling in. Tom took to watching over the babber, when it wasn't getting its milk.”

“That babber of mine has been starting to talk⟳ lately and this morning when he saw⟳ me he said "da da da" very clearly! Proud moment.”

“Ow bis me babber? […] How's it going?”

“In the 2007 World Cup quarter-final against Australia, Andy Sheridan almost destroyed Aussie prop Matt Dunning in the first scrum, and as they broke up Andy was heard to say⟳, “And you've got another seventy-nine minutes of f****** agony to look⟳ forward⟳ to, my babber.””

“Look⟳, babber, I reckon there's been some sort⟳ of mistake⟳. I'm not carrying on with nobody.”

“'Sir, I'm going to end⟳ this call⟳ …' / 'Come⟳ on babber … Honey baby!'”

“Another way of taking eels, and by far the more ingenious, is that known as "babbing," or "bobbing." A series of large worms are strung on cobbler's worsted and coiled into a knot. […] I have⟳ known a couple of "babbers" to take⟳ as many as four or five stone of eels in a single night.”

“It was pretty, too, to watch⟳ the lights in the town going out one by one, until, to borrow from Gray again, the world was left to darkness and to me, and the other eel-babbers.”

“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.”

“Get⟳ a few eels babbing; a babber close⟳ by caught 1¼ lb. tench on his bab.”

CEFR level