fob off

English

Alternative forms

• fub off (archaic)

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.

   • 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] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i]:

     You must not think to fob off our disgrace ; but, an't please you, deliver.

   • 1641 May, John Milton, Of Reformation Touching Church-Discipline in England: And the Cavvses that hitherto have Hindred it; republished as Will Taliaferro Hale, editor, Of Reformation Touching Church-Discipline in England (Yale Studies in English; LIV), New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1916, →OCLC:

     A conspiracy of bishops could prostrate and fob off the right of the people.

   • 2018 December 20, Liz Pain, “Letters: The complex issue of big game trophy hunting”, in The Guardian‎^[1], →ISSN:

     Let’s not be fobbed off by the lie that trophy hunting is promoting conservation of these endangered species.

   • 2020 August 4, Richard Conniff, “They may look goofy, but ostriches are nobody’s fool”, in National Geographic Magazine‎^[2]:

     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.

2. (informal, transitive) To fraudulently dispose of (goods).

   He fobbed off the forgery as genuine.

Synonyms

• (to fraudulently dispose of): foist, pass off, palm off, pawn off

Translations

to put off by evasion

• Dutch: afschepen met
• Finnish: hämätä (fi), harhauttaa (fi)
• German: abwimmeln (de)
• Swedish: avspisa (sv)

References

• Robert Hunter, Charles Morris, editors (1897), Universal Dictionary of the English Language, volume 2, page 2146