noun
- a small pocket just below the waistline in trousers for a watch, keys, change, etc.Compare watch pocket.
- 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.
verb (used with object), fobbed, fobĀ·bing.
- Archaic. to cheat; deceive.
Verb Phrases
- fob off,
- to cheat someone by substituting something spurious or inferior; palm off (often followed by on): He tried to fob off an inferior brand on us.
- to put (someone) off by deception or trickery: She fobbed us off with false promises.
Commerce.
- free on board: without charge to the buyer for goods placed on board a carrier at the point of shipment: automobiles shipped f.o.b. Detroit.
noun
- 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
verb fobs, fobbing or fobbed
- an archaic word for cheat
noun
- NZ slang a Pacific Islander who has newly arrived in New Zealand
abbreviation for
- free on board
1650s, “small pocket for valuables,” probably related to Low German fobke “pocket,” High German fuppe “pocket,” “a dialectal word used in Livonia” [Klein]. Meaning “chain attached to a watch carried in the fob” is from 1885.
“to cheat,” late 14c., from obsolete noun fobbe “cheat, trickster” (late 14c.), perhaps from Old French forbe “cheat” [OED]. Alternative etymology holds that the word is perhaps related to German foppen “to jeer at, make a fool of” (see fop); or from German fuppen, einfuppen “to pocket stealthily,” which would connect it to fob (n.). To fob (someone) off is first recorded 1590s. Related: Fobbed; fobbing.