"Dobbing someone in" - do you know what it means?

[chomalungma]

I use this term - but according to an article i read, it's an Australian / New Zealand term.

I have lived in Australia - and watched Australian TV growing up, like people did - so I can't remember when I learnt it.

Do you know what it means - and do you use it?

Telling tales! I didn't hear it at all at Primary school in St Albans, but we moved when I was 11 and it was certainly used at secondary down in Cornwall.

A bit off topic, but I find this fascinating: When I was in the infants in the 90's there was a rhyme we used to wind each other up, just randomly,

'I'm telling on you!
You licked my lolly and
you never said sorry!
I'm telling on you!'

My mum says that when she was that age, in the 60's up North, they would say,

'I'm telling over you!
You put me in the dustbin
at half past two so
I'm telling over you!'

I just find that really funny, and interesting! Did anyone else have a similar rhyme? Where abouts in the country, and what era?

Telling tales on somebody....we used it in Yorkshire as a child

I know it from watching Aussie soaps as a teen. My teens use the word “snake”. “So-and-so snaked on me!”

Yes, I’ve known what this meant since primary school in NW England in the 80s.

I know what it means we used it at school and I'm 49. No idea it originated from Australia, I think its been in use in UK (or certainly in south east england ) for years, Id be surprised if any british person did t know what it meant tbh

yes, scotland here.

Yes I use it quite alot

It means grassing someone up to me, could have different meanings.

Yes, dobbing someone in it was used a lot when I was a child and I'm in my 60's. It was local speak, not Australian - I've never been to Australia. Not from TV either, we grew up without a TV and I never watched any programmes with this phrase in!

Common parlance here (London) and as far back as I can remember growing up.

Ummm, I’m telling on you! I’m sure we used it at school in Bristol in the 1970s, way before Australian soaps. (Except maybe The Sullivans)

yes I watched neighbours in the 80's but I didn't know it came from there. I just learnt it from life.

I understand it comes from Date Of Birth - to used to identify someone

I’ve used it, can’t remember where I heard it first - but interestingly where I grew up (Nottingham) we used to play a game called “dobby” - it was the same as what kids now call “tig.”

I wonder has it got some sort of origins in that game? When you “dob” someone, you’ve dropped them in it cos they are now “it.”

We also used to sing a similar silly rhyme to pp...

I’m telling me mum of you
You dirty kangaroo
You put me in a dustbin
And made me black and blue

I know it is used in the North of England.

Used when I was going up in the SE England:
"She dobbed me in"- got me in trouble
"Grassed" was more serious and generally meant you gave information without being asked, whereas dobbing normally meant it was forced out of you.

From the north west .... I know what it means used it as a kid.

I'd saying "grassing up" but I know what it means. I didn't know it was Australian though, I've heard loads of people use it.

We used it in hampshire as kids.

My friends always said it and they’re Welsh.

From Northwest England and I'm mid 40s.... we used dobbed in during childhood, before the influence of Australian soaps.

If you ever watched Neighbours or Prisoner Cell Block H then you'd know what it means

@PuppyMonkey

Hahaha, that's so funny! When were you at school?

It was used quite a bit in my teenage years, late 70s/early 80s, here in Bedfordshire.

Does anyone remember ‘itchy beard’? As in lying? It was a 90s thing.

I grew up with it in SE England.

The chin I don't believe you thing was chinny reckon, or Jimmy Hill in the early 80s.