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The Collaborative International Dictionary
To fob off

Fob \Fob\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Fobbed; p. pr. & vb. n. Fobbing.] [Cf.Fop.]

  1. To beat; to maul. [Obs.]

  2. To cheat; to trick; to impose on.
    --Shak.

    To fob off, to shift off by an artifice; to put aside; to delude with a trick."A conspiracy of bishops could prostrate and fob off the right of the people."
    --Milton.

Usage examples of "to fob off".

Only then we fell into so many adventures, and he was obliged to fob off Aunt Almeria, and then the stammering-man guessed I was a girl, and Piers was disagreeable, and I got into a scrape through Lydia's folly, and the Major came, and now this other Mr Brandon knows about me, and the end of it is I have placed poor Richard in the horridest situation imaginable!

Mrs Clapham was not a minor, and the notice of his engagement to her, coupled with a disclosure to Badbury of her circumstances, would be enough to fob off his creditors.

Lady Bellingham bade farewell to travellers, announcing herself to be perfectly able to fob off Augusta Laxton, and a dozen like her.

Naturally, he tried to fob off his most useless parade ground troops on me, but I wouldn't have it.

State Sec may have managed to fob off the League's investigators so far, but what if I make the point to Honeker that Harrington's going to be an especially high-profile prisoner?

It was the sort of trivial stupidity that Worf was usually happy to fob off on Wu, and indeed he did so this time as well—.

Peter gestured wide with the arms the way he had when I'd first seen him, reading the riot act because a couple of executives had been trying to fob off a TV guy on him.

All right-Bleeker's warehouse complex that he tried to fob off as part of the bet.

Wyatt had just literally crapped out, by trying to fob off that old dumb gag about the South Sea island where “.