The meaning of bobolee seems to have changed over the years. I was born in the 1940's. Back then, a bobolee was a stuffed effigy of JUDAS which was tied by the neck and dragged through the streets on GOOD FRIDAY, usually followed by youths with sticks, beating it until it fell apart. Hence the sayings "they beat him like a bobolee", or " he get licks like a bobolee", when someone was beaten up.

The current synonyms seem to lean toward someone who is taken advantage of because he or she is not smart or lovestruck.