Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. of people, healthy, in good spirits, cheery; of situations, prosperous.

1702		T. Brown Letters from the Dead to the Living in Works (1760) II 186: [He] was so very bobborous two days ago, tho’ he’s near seventy, that he bid me look out for a soft-handed she devil to give him a little frication.
1725		View of London & Westminster (2nd part) 25: I pity Beau Bobbish [...] He [...] picks his teeth all the Afternoon at Dicks [...] on Purpose to be ravish’d with those two pretty Words, Your Honour.
1730		K. O’Hara Tom Thumb I i: Arthur to Doll / Is grown bobbish and uxorious.
1767		Leeds Intelligencer 17 Feb. 4/3: I am afraid of my wife’s tongue, but when I’m bobbish and jolly, I can face Beelzebub.
1780		R. Tomlinson Sl. Pastoral 3: I was so good-natur’d, so bobbish and gay.
c.1786		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue ms. additions n.p.: Bobbish. Smart. Clever. Spruce.
1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue (2nd, 3rd edn).
1790		‘Bumper Allnight. Esquire’ Honest Fellow 159: He was joyous, and bobbish and jolly.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1819		W. Scott letter 1 Apr. in Lockhart Life (1896) 394/2: I trust you will find me pretty bobbish .
1828		W. Carr Dialect of Craven II 305: Our lad’s quite bobberous.
1828		F.F. Cooper Elbow-Shakers! I ii: Sir – you’re looking bobbish.
1830		Lytton Paul Clifford I 220: All who can feel for the public weal / Likes the public-house to be bobbish.
1839		J.R. Smith Westmoreland & Cumberland Dial. 333: Bobber, or Bobberous, elated; bragging; in high spirits.
1840		Cumberland Pacquet 1 Sept. 2/7: It is announced in a less bobberous tone than usual.
1845		J. Lindridge Sixteen-String Jack 207: ‘How fares business with you, Kit?’ [...] ‘Oh! bobbish-like; me and my friend Rann, have been doing pretty tidy pickings.’.
1847		Cumberland Pacquet 10 Aug. 3/2: The friends of Arthur Sleagill were somewhat bobberous.
1858		R.S. Surtees Ask Mamma 287: ‘Ah, Monsieur! comment vous portez-vous?’ ‘Pretty bobbish, I tenk you, sare.’.
1861		(con. 1840s–50s) H. Mayhew London Labour and London Poor II 42/1: When times were ‘pretty bobbish,’ they clubbed together for a good supper of tripe.
1873		J. Greenwood In Strange Company 203: He merely made cheery response that he was ‘bobbish’.
1881		W.D. Howells Dr. Breen’s Practice 125: I did n’t know that I must n’t look downcast. I did n’t suppose it would be very polite, under the circumstances, to go round looking as bobbish as I feel.
1884		Ally Sloper’s Half Holiday 21 June 59/1: [caption] Lord Bob’s bobbish.
1917		‘Taffrail’ Sub 214: It’s merely the skipper in his bath. He usually sings when he’s feeling bobbish.
1924		Galsworthy White Monkey 102: ‘How are you?’ [...] ‘Oh! bobbish, thanks!’.
1936		M. Harrison All the Trees were Green 137: ‘And how are you, Count?’ ‘Bobbish, me boy.’.
1949		Wodehouse Mating Season 120: He was now gay, bobbish, and boomps-a-daisy.
1954		Wodehouse Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit 78: He had become gay and bobbish.

2. emotional, ill-tempered.

1864		Cumberland Pacquet 26 Apr. 5/1: Everybody knows what to make of the [...] bobberous Protestant who chalks ‘No Popery’ on the walls of a Cathedral city.
1867		Cumberland Pacquet 5 Mar. 5/1: We feel assured that the slightest reflection upon the real circumstance [...] will satisfy the most bobberous of malcontents.