Also 6–7 fub, 6–7 fobb(e. See also FOP v. [First recorded late in 16th c.; cogn. with or f. FOB sb.1 1. Cf. Ger. foppen to deceive, befool.]
1. trans. To cheat, deceive, delude, trick, impose upon, ‘take in’; also with up.
1583. Greene, Mamillia, Wks. (Grosart), II. 102. I will not feede you with delayes, nor fobbe you with fayre wordes, and foule deedes: but I speake as I thinke, & so you shall finde it.
1593. Tell-Troth’s N. Y. Gift, 25. She had so won him to her will, as he would not onely reueale vnto her what so euer his wise maister would say, but also would euer by false oathes fobbe him vppe with a thousand vntruthes concerning her approued honesty.
1647. Cartwright, Ordinary, IV. iv.
| You should not make a laughing stock good Brother | |
| Of one that wrongs you not; I do professe | |
| I won’t be fubb’d ensure your self. |
1731. Fielding, Grub St. Op., I. v.
| Why should not I love Robin? | |
| And why should not Bob love me? | |
| While every one else he is fobbing, | |
| He still may be honest to me. |
1861. Standard, 4 Nov. They think themselves fobbed by our dextrous policy.
2. To bring or put into, or bestow upon, by jobbery or trickery; to palm or pass off upon. Also, to get up, procure, or promote by trickery; also with up. To fob in: to introduce in an underhand way. ? Obs.
1653. A. Wilson, Jas. I., 68. Another young Gentlewoman, that had lesse offended, was fobbed into the place. Ibid., 241. The Iesuits not being able to prove that any of these things were in practice in the Primitive Times of Christianity (but that they were fobb’d in by several Popes and Councils, in latter times, to serve their own turns) waved the Argument.
1678. R. L’Estrange, Seneca’s Mor. (1702), 522. Here’s the Old Abstract, they’ll cry Juggles into a New Paraphrase, and the same Thing Fobb’d upon the World over again, only under another Name.
1704. J. Logan, in Pa. Hist. Soc. Mem., IX. 311. Which place was by an unworthy abuse of some under the commission fobbed upon him.
1716. M. Davies, Athenæ Britannicæ, I. 280. That Legendary Triumvirate found ways by means of Popish Zeal and great Wealth … to fob into Tinmouth’s Gold-finding Legendary their own production of Winefred’s Life.
1741. Richardson, Pamela (1824), I. xxxiii. 331. Don’t fob upon us your girl with the Pagan name for Lady Jenny.
1792. Wolcott (P. Pindar), Ep. to Ld. Macartney, Wks. 1812, III. 126.
| Bow down, ye Armies, then, and thank your God | |
| That Richmond holds the military rod: | |
| No Janus he, with selfish views to fob, | |
| And touch the Nation’s pocket with a job. |
1805. Morning Chron., 31 Aug., in Spirit Pub. Jrnls. (1806), IX. 208.
| So now it was time, when I found my defeat, | |
| To fob up an excuse for my sudden retreat. |
1825. Westm. Rev., IV. 401. We find him with much point, pleasantry, and earnestness, fobbing an ale licence.
3. Fob off.
a. To put off deceitfully; to attempt to satisfy with an excuse or pretense; to baffle, cajole; to put off (a person) with (something of inferior quality or something less than he has been led to expect).
1597. Shaks., 2 Hen. IV., II. i. 37. I haue borne, and borne, and borne, and haue bin fub’d off, and fub’d-off, from this day to that day, that it is a shame to be thought on.
1601. Rowlands, Greene’s Ghost, 8. She should not mix lime with her Ale, to make it mightie, or cozen the Queenes liege people of their drinke, by fubbing them off with these slender wasted blacke pots and Cannes, that will hold little more than a Sering.
1650. Cowley, Guardian, V. vii. Dog. I must not be fob’d off thus about my daughter.
1767. B. Thornton, trans. Plautus, I. 318.
| The butchers, | |
| Who under the pretence of selling lamb | |
| Will put off ewe upon you, fob you off | |
| With ram for weather mutton. |
1842. Barham, Ingol. Leg., Ser. II., Row in Omnibus.
| Dol-drum!—Dol-drum!— Bid the Manager come, | |
| It’s a scandalous thing to exact such a sum | |
| For boxes and gallery, stalls and pit, | |
| And then fob us off with a Fal-de-ral-tit! |
1892. Daily News, 21 Jan., 5/5. Able-bodied paupers have been fobbed off with … broth ‘no better than hot water.’
† b. To put or shift off (a thing) by deceit or pretense; to get rid of, or set aside by a trick.
1607. Shaks., Cor., I. i. 97.
| You must not thinke | |
| To fobbe off our disgrace with a tale. |
1641. Milton, Reform., I. (1851), 16. It was not of old that a Conspiracie of Bishops could frustrate and fob off the right of the people.
c. To palm off upon (a person); cf. 2.
1894. Times, 25 July, 10/1. If a … novel cannot be fobbed off upon the … people of London … it is rusticated.
Hence Fobbing vbl. sb.
a. 1619. Beaum. & Fl., Wit at Sev. Weapons, IV. i. Now you talk of fobbing, I wonder the Lady sends not for me according to promise?
