Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (also dob on) to betray, to inform against.

1914		Sport (Adelaide) 28 Aug. 5/6: At Dob-in-cottage you can get a sackfull of news .
1954		(con. 1940s) E. Lambert Veterans 206: It’ll do no good abusing Lucky, or dobbing him in.
1959		Baker Drum 105: Dob in, to betray, to focus blame on another; esp. to dob someone in.
1960		J. Iggulden Storms of Summer 297: Some rotten poxy bitch of a chromo dobbed them in.
1965		D. Martin Hero of Too 275: And that I can’t. I’d be dobbing in a mate.
1973		(con. 1940s–60s) Hogbotel & ffuckes ‘Life Presents a Dismal Picture’ in Snatches and Lays 21: Uncle Dave’s the Kingsgrove slasher – / Uncle Henry dobbed him in.
1979		Lette & Carey Puberty Blues 16: ‘Didja dob?’ ‘On you? . . . No way.’.
1981		A. Weller Day of the Dog 6: They spent the weekend playing pool, handing out money and getting drunk until a jealous rival dobbed Floyd in.
1986		R.G. Barrett Real Thing 127: I’ve only got to get dobbed in by one of those bloody concerned citizens and the drug squad’d be out here in five minutes.
1996		P. Temple Bad Debts (2012) [ebook] Ronnie dobbed in some hit-and-run bloke.
1999		Observer 24 Oct. 29: Jack Straw was the only known student not to smoke dope (an abstinence that would later enable the gruesome expediency of dobbing in his own son for precisely that).
2000		personal correspondence 26 Aug.: dob: verb meaning bear tales. Has two tenses: future ‘I’m going to dob on you to [authority figure]’ from child B; second, the flying imperative, uttered while running indoors behind B: ‘Don’t dob! Don’t dob!’ Universal here [Australia] for the past 30 years, and much used by adults. Child or adult B is the dobber (n).
2006		P. Carey Theft 228: You can get in trouble [...] be roared up, reported, dobbed in.
2009		P. Temple Truth 86: What, gonna dob me? Serve me bloodywell right lettin you into me house.
2010		L. Redhead Thrill City [ebook] I hoped my attacker would [...] realise I wasn’t about to dob him in.
2011		Intelligent Life Late Summer 132/1: Everybody broke the rules [...] but if you were ‘dobbed in’ by a ‘reliable source’ you were in trouble.
2018		C. Hammer Scrublands [ebook] ‘It wasn’t you who dobbed me into the coppers, was it?’.
2018		C. Hammer Scrublands [ebook] They were going to dob in us, tell the police.
2020		D. Whish-Wilson Shore Leave 46: ‘[T]he weasel had no worries dobbing me in’.

2. (also dob down) to contribute (financially).

1844		Tom Cladpole’s Jurney to Lunnun 27: ‘Ya’ve twenty more to pay!’ ‘Fer what?’ I ax’d, dey sed ‘fer cost,’ [...] So I dubb’d down de stuff ya see, An den dey let me goo.
1936		‘Banjo’ Paterson Shearer’s Colt 59: They’ll keep ’im for some other place where they can dob it down on ’im and win a packet.
1965		W. Dick Bunch of Ratbags 216: You gotta dob in too, Argles, or you ain’t drinkin’ none of our grog.
1968		(con. 1940s) G. Dutton Andy 197: The boys are taking up a collection. She needs £20. [...] The ground crew are dobbing in too.
1988		McGill Dict. of Kiwi Sl. 37/2: dob in [...] to contribute funds.
2003		McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. [as cit. 1988].

3. (also dob it on) to impose a responsibility on.

1968

S. Gore Holy Smoke 24: Some sky-pilot joker tried to dob it on me to go to church! [Ibid.] 54: He tells them [...] all about the Ninevah job he’s been dobbed in for.

4. to cause trouble for someone.

1988		McGill Dict. of Kiwi Sl. 37/2: dob in [...] to put someone in trouble, perhaps oneself.
2003		McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. [as cit. 1988].