fob
/fɒb/
fob noun: a little pocket near the waistline of a pair of trousers or in a waistcoat or vest to hold money or valuables, especially a pocket watch. Also the alternative letter-case form of FOB.
Noun (1)
fob (plural fobs)
- A little pocket near the waistline of a pair of trousers or in a waistcoat or vest to hold money or valuables, especially a pocket watch.
- With a saint at his chin and a seal at his fob.1711, Jonathan Swift, Windsor Prophecy
- As soon as they had confined my arms they left me, and remembering the bank-notes which I had in my fob, I began to fear they had come to the knowledge of this circumstance […].1792, Thomas Holcroft, Anna St. Ives, volume VII, Fragment
- A short chain or ribbon to connect such a pocket to the watch.
- A small ornament attached to such a chain.
- fob seal
- A hand-held electronic device that can be used as a remote control or as a key to unlock motor cars, doors, etc., and thus, modern car keys.
Verb
fob (third-person singular simple present fobs, present participle fobbing, simple past and past participle fobbed)
- To cheat, to deceive, to trick, to take in, to impose upon someone.
- I think it is scurvy, and begin to find myself fobbed in it.c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Othello, the Moore of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac...
- To beat; to maul.
Adjective capitalized: FOB
FOB (not comparable)
- Initialism of free on board.
- Initialism of fresh off the boat.
- All I knew was, the three-year gap made the difference between passing as American and being exposed as FOB.2022, Ling Ma, “G”, in Bliss Montage, New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, →ISBN
Noun (2) capitalized: FOB
FOB (countable and uncountable, plural FOBs)
- Initialism of forward operating base.
- Initialism of flash of brilliance.
- Initialism of freedom of belief.
- Initialism of friend of Bill: a supporter of Bill Clinton.
- It seemed at times that everyone was an FOB — everyone, that is, who'd emerged from the ivyest groves of academia […]2007, David Lebedoff, The Uncivil War: How a New Elite Is Destroying Our Democracy, page 133
- Initialism of foot overbridge: a pedestrian overpass.
- There has been an inordinate delay in starting work on the foot over bridge (FOB) with escalators in front of D.G. Vaishnav College on Poonamallee High Road in Arumbakkam. […] The FOB at P.H. Road, which is maintained by the state highways department, is one of seven similar facilities planned at...2014 August 30, D. Madhavan, “Need for foot over bridge keenly felt”, in The Hindu
- Initialism of fresh off the boat, a recent immigrant.
- Everyone was Chinese. Some of the students were ABCs. That means "American-born Chinese." Others were FOBs. FOB means "fresh off the boat" and it is a bad insult. I didn't feel prejudiced about the FOBs because I was one of them.1993, Susan Kulkin, Speaking Out: Teenagers Take on Race, Sex, and Identity, New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, →ISBN, page 59
- Synonyms:
- freshie, greener, new chum, blow-in, come-here, comeling, entrant, fresh meat, incomer, Johnny-come-lately
- Abbreviation of fecal occult blood.
Proper noun capitalized: FOB
FOB
- Initialism of Fall Out Boy, an American pop-punk band formed in Chicago.
Also used as
fob is also the alternative letter-case form of FOB.
fob meaning in Tamil, Marathi, Bengali and Malayalam
fob in Tamil
- ஃபோப் செய்ய
fob in Marathi
- फोब करण्यासाठी
fob in Malayalam
- ഫോബ് ചെയ്യാൻ
More languagesFewer languages
- fob in Punjabi
- ਐੱਫ. ਓ. ਬੀ, ਫੋਬ ਕਰਨ ਲਈ
Examples of fob in a sentence
- The gym will give you a fob that opens the door.
- When I phoned up, I was fobbed off with a string of excuses.
- He fobbed off the forgery as genuine.
Synonyms of fob
Forms of fob
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | fobs |
| plural | FOBs |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | fobs |
| present participle | fobbing |
| past participle | fobbed |
| past | fobbed |
| alternative form | fub |
| Adjective | |
| alternative form | F.O.B. |
| alternative form | F. O. B. |
| alternative form | fob |
Origin of fob
From Low German Fobke (“pocket”) or High Prussian Fuppe (“pocket”), probably related to Swedish ficka (“pocket”), Old Danish fikke, Alemannic German figge, Middle Dutch vicke, all from Proto-Germanic *fikkja, of uncertain ultimate origin: * possibly from Proto-Indo-European *pewǵ- (“to assail, strike”), related to *fukkōną (“to strike”); * or of Romance origin, from Latin figere (“to fix, fasten”), possibly via an old form of Italian ficcare. Also see Ficke.
From German foppen (“to mock”).
Abbreviation.
Words formed from fob
Phrases with fob
Words that rhyme with fob
Questions about fob
- What does fob mean?
- Fob means a little pocket near the waistline of a pair of trousers or in a waistcoat or vest to hold money or valuables, especially a pocket watch.
- What is fob in Tamil?
- Fob in Tamil is ஃபோப் செய்ய. See Fob meaning in Tamil.
- What part of speech is fob?
- Fob can be a noun, a verb, an adjective or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce fob?
- Fob is pronounced /fɒb/.
- What is the plural of fob?
- The plural of fob is fobs.
Words near fob in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: fob (page history and authors); FOB (page history and authors); fob (Tamil, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); fob (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); fob (Bengali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); fob (Malayalam, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); fob (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-fob.wav, En-au-FOB.ogg.
Cite this entry: “fob.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/fob. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.