fob off
English
Alternative forms
Verb
fob off (third-person singular simple present fobs off, present participle fobbing off, simple past and past participle fobbed off)
- (informal, transitive) To use lies, excuses, or deceit to satisfy someone; to deceitfully appease someone by giving something that is spurious or inferior from what was wanted or expected.
- When I phoned up, I was fobbed off with a string of excuses.
- The author's defense of the policy fobs readers off by only briefly mentioning the opposition's strong points and then immediately dismissing them without comment.
- c. 1608–1609 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Coriolanus”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i]:
- You must not think to fob off our disgrace ; but, an't please you, deliver.
- 1641 May, John Milton, Of Reformation Touching Church-Discipline in England: And the Cavvses that hitherto have Hindred it; republished as Will Taliaferro Hale, editor, Of Reformation Touching Church-Discipline in England (Yale Studies in English; LIV), New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1916, →OCLC:
- A conspiracy of bishops could prostrate and fob off the right of the people.
- 2020 August 4, Richard Conniff, “They may look goofy, but ostriches are nobody’s fool”, in National Geographic Magazine[1]:
- birds that try to fob off the tedious work of parenting by slipping their eggs into other birds’ nests.
- (informal, transitive) To fraudulently dispose of (goods).
- He fobbed off the forgery as genuine.
Synonyms
Translations
to put off by evasion
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References
- 1897 Universal Dictionary of the English Language, Robert Hunter and Charles Morris, eds., v 2 p 2146.