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
"We get tons of people inquiring about stories, and normally we kind of fob them off a bit," he said.
From BBC ● Jun. 1, 2026
The doors typically don’t unlock when I approach the car until I pull out the key fob and hit the unlock button.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 20, 2025
You can also weaken the signal by purchasing a signal blocking bag or box to leave the key fob in.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 26, 2025
He also wore a fob watch and a chain.
From "October Sky" by Homer Hickam
Compared with those for the new Model A Ford, they are, f.o.b.
From Time Magazine Archive
For two pandas, f.o.b., he demanded two one-year scholarships, complete with tuition and living expenses, for deserving Szechwan students.
From Time Magazine Archive
For entirely proper reasons, they had refused to ship any sugar this year at the 1945 price of $3.10 per 100 lbs. f.o.b.
From Time Magazine Archive
The industry was feeling no pain: with cementmakers now selling f.o.b. at their mills, the savings on freight absorption meant increased earnings.
From Time Magazine Archive
Oil - exports: NA Oil - imports: NA Exports: $26.6 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
Experts suggest keeping key fobs near the center of the home so the signal is harder to pick up.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 26, 2025
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
It’s then that I remember the email that said we’d need our key fobs to access the pool if we wanted to swim before eight a.m. on weekdays.
From "Red Flags and Butterflies" by Sheryl Azzam
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
"I was absolutely gutted and every phone call I made to the Bournemouth office, I got fobbed off."
From BBC ● Oct. 17, 2025
"I have to do the chasing, they never ring me, I've explained my situation, I'm really struggling and I just get fobbed off," he said.
From BBC ● Feb. 10, 2025
"I feel totally fobbed off by Bellway," he says.
From BBC ● Jan. 13, 2025
His grievance was this: that while a rival show across the river had been accorded a military picket by the War Office, he had been fobbed off with a mere guard of Special Constables.
From Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 147, October 14, 1914 by Various
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
After unsuccessfully fobbing us off with endless series of Ross Kemp looking macho, Sky is now throwing serious money at getting viewers to watch something other than sport.
From The Guardian ● Feb. 11, 2011
And so saying, under sufferance of being small, the plenipo was permitted to depart unmolested; for all his bravadoes, fobbing his credentials and affronts.
From Mardi: and A Voyage Thither, Vol. II by Melville, Herman
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.
