FROB (frahb)
1. noun. A protruding arm or trunnion. (This is the official
definition by the Tech Model Railroad Club at MIT.) 2. Any
somewhat small thing; an object that you can comfortably hold
in one hand. Something you can frob. See FROBNICATE. 3. verb.
Abbreviated form of FROBNICATE.
FROBNICATE (frahb'-ni'kayt)
verb. To manipulate or adjust; to do the appropriate thing to;
to play with; to fondle. This word is usually abbreviated to
simply "frob," but frobnicate is recognized as the official
full form. Examples: "Please frob the lightswitch." (That is,
flip the lightswitch.) "Stop frobbing that clasp. You'll break
it."
Synonyms: TWEAK, TWIDDLE.
Frob, twiddle and tweak often connote points along a spectrum.
Frob connotes aimless manipulation; twiddle connotes gross
manipulation, often a coarse search for a propper setting;
tweak connotes fine tuning. Suppose someone is turning a knob
on an oscilloscope. If he's carefully adjusting it, searching
for some particular point, he is probably tweaking it. If he is
turning it rather quickly while looking at the screen, he is
probably twiddling it. But if he's just doing it because
turning a knob is fun, he's frobbing it.
(From the Hacker's DIctionary.)
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