a small pocket just below the waistline in pants, designed for a watch, keys, change, etc.
especially formerly,
a short chain or ribbon, usually with a medallion or similar ornament, attached to a watch and worn hanging from a pocket.
the medallion or ornament itself.
The fob allows students 24/7 access into the residence building and their rooms.
I could never find my nail clipper in my purse, so now I’m using it as a fob on my keychain.
a chain or ribbon by which a pocket watch is attached to a waistcoat
any ornament hung on such a chain
a small pocket in a man's waistcoat, for holding a watch
a metal or plastic tab on a key ring
First recorded in 1645–55; origin uncertain; compare dialectal German Fuppe, Low German Fobke “pocket”
First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English fobben; perhaps cognate with German foppen “to delude, kid, tease” ( cf. fop) or, alternatively, akin to French fourbe “cheat, swindler” (from Old French forbir “to clean”; see furbish ( def. ))
First recorded in 1870–75
A fob is a chain that holds an old-fashioned pocket watch. If your grandfather carries his watch around in a little pocket in his vest, it's probably attached with a fob. It's uncommon to see a watch fob these days, but they were once as ordinary as the watches they held. The little pockets sewn in men's clothing were also fobs, and today, a key chain is sometimes called a fob. When fob is a verb, it means to fool people or play a trick on them, especially by giving them something less valuable than they expect. This meaning is from the obsolete fobbe, "cheater."
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Still they forgot things, like a $600 spare key fob for Frank’s truck.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 20, 2026
The car has its enjoyable quirks: The hatch glass opens up with the press of a key fob button.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 13, 2026
The bag or box is made out of conductive metal mesh that blocks the electromagnetic signals that emit from the key fob, according to AAA.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 26, 2025
Ms Mannings reflected on how people often ask "are you OK?" - but it's a vague question, easy to "fob off".
From BBC ● Oct. 16, 2025
I slipped my watch chain through my waistcoat buttonhole and straightened the fob, a Romanian silver leu whose details were worn to shadows.
From "The City Beautiful" by Aden Polydoros
Sears did not set a retail price but it now sells for $1,362 f.o.b.
From Time Magazine Archive
Every Zen trender can spot for himself the Oriental mysticism in Whitman, but as far as Anderson is concerned, it all comes f.o.b.
From Time Magazine Archive
The U.S. will buy the tin outright at $1.18 a pound, f.o.b.
From Time Magazine Archive
What the FTC wanted, in effect, was an f.o.b. system such as automakers use, with consumers paying the cost of a product, plus the actual freight to the point of delivery.
From Time Magazine Archive
Oil - exports: NA Oil - imports: NA Exports: $214 million f.o.b.
From The 2005 CIA World Factbook by United States. Central Intelligence Agency
"They're in all modern cell phones, key fobs, garage door openers, most GPS receivers, many radar systems and more."
From Science Daily ● Jan. 17, 2026
Hikers carry fobs and must scan in at four checkpoints 7 miles apart and depart by a certain time or quit.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 27, 2025
Automakers have started adding motion sensors to key fobs.
From Seattle Times ● May 16, 2024
Improvised strategies such as wrapping fobs in aluminum foil or placing fobs inside tin cans have proved effective.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 29, 2024
Most gang members in the Barrel loved flash: gaudy waistcoats, watch fobs studded with false gems, trousers in every print and pattern imaginable.
From "Six of Crows" by Leigh Bardugo
But 59-year-old Franklin said she had been "fobbed off" by the company.
From BBC ● Apr. 16, 2026
Some feel "fobbed off" that concerns over side effects are not taken seriously and are also fed up of bearing the "contraceptive burden", says Hall.
From BBC ● Apr. 11, 2026
When the nurses raised their concerns, they "genuinely felt they were not being taken seriously" and were "being in essence fobbed off by senior management and seen as trouble-makers", the panel said.
From BBC ● Jan. 16, 2026
Many workers whose wages or workplace conditions were effectively dictated by big companies that fobbed their responsibilities onto franchise owners would consider that anything but a drawback.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 13, 2024
Hon'ble Sir, and you will see how transcendentally superior are even such poor effusions compared to the fiddle-faddle and gim-crack style of article with which you are being fobbed off by puzzle-headed and self-opiniated nincompoops.
From Baboo Jabberjee, B.A. by Anstey, F.
They’re asking that HHS deal directly with their case instead of fobbing it off to the NIH, which would bring it under the purview of HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 24, 2023
"This has been going on for 20 years, at least 20 years, and the council have been fobbing us off time and time again," said the 77-year-old.
From BBC ● Jan. 19, 2023
A major challenge will be keeping researchers from simply treating the requirement as another box to tick or fobbing the work off on minority scientists, Hodari says.
From Science Magazine ● Oct. 4, 2022
“You can’t play those parts by just looking at them and fobbing them off,” he said.
From The Guardian ● Dec. 13, 2019
It is no use closing our eyes and fobbing ourselves off with words.
From Jean-Christophe Journey's End by Cannan, Gilbert
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.
