lob
1 Americanverb (used with object)
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lobs,
present (3rd person singular)
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lobbed,
past participle, past
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lobbing
present participle
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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)
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lobs,
present (3rd person singular)
-
lobbed,
past participle, past
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lobbing
present participle
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:
His high-profile targets went on to include the future French president Nicolas Sarkozy in 1997 -- although in that case he had an accomplice lob the actual pie for fear of being recognised.
From Barron's ● Aug. 24, 2026
“No one has a right to lob unfounded accusations without a response. Director Patel, as well as any Trump administration official, has a right to defend themselves,” the FBI said in a statement.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 24, 2026
With Centre Court still reeling from Gauff's scarcely believable miss, the tables turned quickly and Muchova brought up her first match point with a perfectly placed lob that left Gauff stranded at the net.
From BBC ● Jul. 9, 2026
When healthy, scouts said, he can be the lob threat and defender that Doncic yearns to have.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 21, 2026
He grabbed the boot off the ground and stood, bringing it up over his head, ready to lob it at his brothers again.
From Anya and the Nightingale by Sofiya Pasternack
There's actually two Spurs players on the line and he still lobs it into the goal.
From BBC ● May 19, 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
It also paired Hayes with Doncic, a maestro when it comes to playing with athletic centers who he can find space for lobs near the rim.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 2, 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
Critics say the danger faced by agents whose names are made public is overblown, almost always limited to harsh and violent words lobbed from behind a laptop or phone screen.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 6, 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
His mother had a question ready, though, and she lobbed it out.
From "Anger Is a Gift" by Mark Oshiro
Nicknamed "the Glooper" for his cries of "Gloop! Gloop!" after each strike, Godin spent more than three decades lobbing pies at rich and famous targets he felt needed bringing down a notch.
From Barron's ● Aug. 24, 2026
But so far she hasn’t stumped for him, instead lobbing veiled criticisms of Talarico’s efforts to win over Black voters.
From Slate ● Aug. 14, 2026
“The RSF can’t project force any other way right now, so they’re lobbing drones like aerial IEDs,” said Nathaniel Raymond, executive director of the Humanitarian Research Lab at the Yale School of Public Health.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 24, 2026
The AI company Anthropic ran an advert for its AI assistant Claude, with the commercial lobbing what appears to be some implicit criticism at rival AI software ChatGPT.
From BBC ● Feb. 9, 2026
He’s lobbing a ball to a kid beneath the broken hoop.
From "Black Brother, Black Brother" by Jewell Parker Rhodes
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.
