b.to bob for apples, cherries, etc.: to snatch with the mouth at apples, or other fruit, floating on water, or dangling from a string, the fruit in either case generally eluding the mouth of the would-be captor.
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society > leisure > entertainment > pastimes > game > parlour and party games > [verb (intransitive)] > snatch with the mouth
to bob for apples, cherries1834
1834 C. LambLet. 18 Oct. (1935) III. 419 No. 92 may bob it as she likes; but she catches no cherry of me.
1858 Sat. Rev. 31 July 98 Like a schoolboy who fruitlessly bobs in the tub of water after the apple.