fob off
Britishverb
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to appease or trick (a person) with lies or excuses
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to dispose of (goods) by trickery
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Sell or dispose of goods by fraud or deception, as in They tried to fob off the zircon as a diamond . [c. 1600]
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Put off or appease by deceitful means, as in We needed her help but were fobbed off by promises . [c. 1600]
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Is it really sustainable for them to fob off questions about it with non-answers for weeks on end?
From BBC ● Sep. 25, 2023
I have never read any major news story so inappropriately world-weary — and so willing to fob off the press’ failures on the public.
From Salon ● Dec. 17, 2019
The occult, the creepy, the just plain weird: this is exactly the kind of thing that ordinary detectives fob off onto the Peculiar Crimes team, if they possibly can.
From New York Times ● Nov. 26, 2014
I wouldn’t put it past Roger to play on Pete’s ambition and sense of self-importance and fob off on him some of the non-recreational aspects of the job.
From Slate ● May 8, 2012
Patience—had he such patience to wait when her mother lived, or did he fob off Miles Avenon her father upon that fool's adventure wherein he was presently slain, as Uriah was slain, Bathsheba's man?
From Idonia: A Romance of Old London by Wallis, Arthur F.
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
