Word.ws English Dictionary

fob off

fob off verb: to use lies, excuses, or deceit to satisfy (someone); to deceitfully appease someone by giving something that is spurious or inferior from what was wanted or expected.

Verb

fob off (third-person singular simple present fobs off, present participle fobbing off, simple past and past participle fobbed off)

  1. (informal, transitive) To use lies, excuses, or deceit to satisfy (someone); to deceitfully appease someone by giving something that is spurious or inferior from what was wanted or expected.
    • When I phoned up, I was fobbed off with a string of excuses.
    • You must not think to fob off our disgrace ; but, an't please you, deliver.c. 1608–1609 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Coriolanus”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
  2. (informal, transitive) To fraudulently dispose of (goods).
    • He fobbed off the forgery as genuine.

Examples of fob off in a sentence

  • A conspiracy of bishops could prostrate and fob off the right of the people.1641 May, John Milton, Of Reformation Touching Church-Discipline in England: And the Causes that hitherto have Hindred it. […], [London]...
  • Other species have evolved elaborate defenses to deter “brood parasites,” birds that try to fob off the tedious work of parenting by slipping their eggs into other birds’ nests.2020 August 4, Richard Conniff, “They may look goofy, but ostriches are nobody’s fool”, in National Geographic Magazine:

Synonyms of fob off

Forms of fob off

third-person singular presentfobs off
present participlefobbing off
past participlefobbed off
pastfobbed off
alternative form (archaic)fub off

Questions about fob off

What does fob off mean?
Fob off means to use lies, excuses, or deceit to satisfy (someone); to deceitfully appease someone by giving something that is spurious or inferior from what was wanted or expected.
How do you use fob off in a sentence?
A conspiracy of bishops could prostrate and fob off the right of the people.
What part of speech is fob off?
Fob off is a verb.
What is the past tense of fob off?
The past tense of fob off is fobbed off.

Words near fob off in the dictionary

  1. foamy
  2. Foard
  3. Foard County
  4. Foards
  5. fob
  6. fob off
  7. fob watch
  8. fobbed
  9. fobbed off
  10. fobbing
  11. fobbing off

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: fob off (page history and authors). 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.

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