lob
1 Americanverb (used with object)
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Tennis. to hit (a ball) in a high arc to the back of the opponent's court.
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to fire (a missile, as a shell) in a high trajectory so that it drops onto a target.
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Cricket. to bowl (the ball) with a slow underhand motion.
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to throw (something) slowly in an arc.
verb (used without object)
noun
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Tennis. a ball hit in a high arc to the back of the opponent's court.
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Cricket. a ball bowled with a slow underhand motion.
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British Dialect. a slow, heavy, dull-witted person.
noun
noun
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a ball struck in a high arc
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cricket a ball bowled in a slow high arc
verb
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to hit or kick (a ball) in a high arc
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informal to throw, esp in a high arc
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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lobsimple
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lobssimple
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have lobbedperfect
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has lobbedperfect
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am lobbingprogressive
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are lobbingprogressive
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is lobbingprogressive
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have been lobbingperfect progressive
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has been lobbingperfect progressive
Past
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lobbedsimple
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had lobbedperfect
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was lobbingprogressive
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were lobbingprogressive
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had been lobbingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of lob
1325–75; in earlier sense, to behave like a lob ( Middle English lobbe, lob bumpkin, clumsy person, originally pollack; Old English: spider; basic sense, something pendulous); cognate with Middle Low German, Middle Dutch lobbe dangling part, stockfish, etc.
Explanation
When you lob something, you throw it up very high. If you lob a baseball from the outfield to the pitcher, you hurl it in an arc that ends right where the pitcher can catch it. If you propel an object in an arc, you lob it. For example, a soldier might lob a missile at the enemy. Tennis players can lob a ball by hitting it up and over the net. Today the noun lob means a throw (or hit) that follows an arc, but in the 14th century a lob was a "lazy lout," and in the 16th century it was "a lumpish thing."
Vocabulary lists containing lob
The Smashing Lexicon of Tennis
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The Wild Robot
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Heat
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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.
See Examples For:
Adou Thiero ran the court, took a lob pass from Chris Mañon and threw down a two-handed dunk.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 12, 2026
Ah, let's just lob the whole trip in the bin.
From BBC ● Jun. 18, 2026
Playing with variety and spin, Chwalinska can lob, drop shot and moonball her opponents to distraction, but she can also hit with pace to finish off points quickly.
From BBC ● Jun. 4, 2026
Who will best slot in alongside Doncic, the heliocentric star who everyone knows thrives when paired with defenders, shooters and lob threats?
From Los Angeles Times ● May 6, 2026
He longed for quiet—to be able to stand by a blue pool in the evening, and lob a pebble into the water, and watch the circles of ripples spread slow on the sober surface.
From "Beowulf: A New Telling" by Robert Nye
Doncic hit daring fadeaway three-pointers, threw sky-high lobs to teammates and nailed a dramatic winning shot against the Nuggets at home to add cinematic highlights to his budding most valuable player case.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 22, 2026
The rally - full of extraordinary drop shots, lobs and smashes - will take some beating this year.
From BBC ● Mar. 12, 2026
He then dominated the tie-break, capitalising on a run of backhand errors from Alcaraz and executing a couple of pinpoint lobs, to seal the first set.
From BBC ● Nov. 16, 2025
Jodie Burrage, who played doubles with Kartal, joked it was not a surprise to learn the statistic about Kartal's height "given how many lobs went over her head".
From BBC ● Jul. 5, 2025
JB lobs the ball, I rise like a Learjet— seventh-graders aren’t supposed to dunk.
From "The Crossover" by Kwame Alexander
His returns were often unorthodox and he was fond of a lobbed service return to unsettle opponents.
From BBC ● Apr. 15, 2026
In December, Ellison lobbed in his sixth bid, saying Paramount had offered a package that covered all the issues Warner had raised, including the need for “strong cash value” and “speed to close.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 28, 2026
I was a fresh-faced high school senior, living out the prime of my teenage youth in an increasingly progressive world where fundamentalist doomsday prophecies were lobbed around in jest.
From Salon ● Dec. 21, 2025
Hall then lobbed the game-winning touchdown pass to Mason Taylor at the back of the end zone in the final minutes to set up victory.
From Barron's ● Oct. 26, 2025
When he saw the blackened turkey smoldering in the oven, he grabbed two dish towels and hauled the bird into the backyard, where he unceremoniously lobbed it into the canal.
From "We Are the Ants" by Shaun David Hutchinson
Tennis for those of us who are not professional players is a loser’s game, and we can win simply by lobbing the ball back to our opponents until they make unforced errors.
From MarketWatch ● May 11, 2026
The bidding war stretched 20 minutes before a different anonymous collector bidding over the telephone and lobbing bids in multimillion-dollar increments eventually won the work.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 19, 2025
And McLean capped the evening off by lobbing Denmark goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel from inside his own half, having come off the bench to replace the injured Ben Gannon-Doak in the first half.
From BBC ● Nov. 18, 2025
Times reporters witnessed federal agents lobbing multiple rounds of flash-bangs and pepper balls at protesters.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 8, 2025
By the time the god regained his feet and started lobbing coconuts at them from far below, the Argo II was already sailing through the clouds above the Mediterranean.
From "The Mark of Athena" by Rick Riordan
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.
