From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishfobfob1 /fɒb $ fɑːb/ verb (fobbed, fobbing) informal → fob somebody ↔ off→ See Verb table
Examples from the Corpus
fob• It was impossible to fob her off with vague statements - and perhaps unwise.• Confronted in his domestic environment, he would find it more difficult to fob her off.• She tried to fob him off tactfully at first, but then he became brutal.• Convention demanded that a woman must skirt around the truth, fobbing off a man while leading him on.• Madame Weill, a tiny woman in a tailored suit, tried to fob the policeman off.• Gavin repeatedly tried to fob them off and one family has still not been paid.• They were instructed to fob them off with promises in order to get them back to work as quickly as possible.• I hoped the Hall Brothers were not going to try to fob us off by paying us in kind.fobfob2 noun [countable] DCa small object that is fixed to a key ring as a decorationFrom Longman Business Dictionaryfobfob /fɒbfɑːb/ verb (fobbed, fobbing) informal → fob somebody → off → fob something → off on somebody→ See Verb tableFOBFOB TRANSPORTabbreviation for FREE ON BOARD → see under IncotermOrigin fob1 (1500-1600) fob “to deceive” ((16-19 centuries)) fob2 (1600-1700) Perhaps from German fuppe “pocket” 