1678. Butler, Hudibras, III., i., 107. Had rifled all his pokes and
fobs Of gimcrack whims and gingumbobs.
1690. B. E., Dict. of the Canting Crew. Fob, c., also a little
pocket.
1703. Marvell, Poems on Affairs of State. ‘Royal Revolutions.’ When
plate was in pawn and fob at an ebb. Ibid. ‘Last Instructions,’
etc. More gold in’s fob, more lace upon his coat.
1785. Grose, Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue, s.v.
3. (common).—A watch chain or ribbon, with buckle and seals, worn
hanging from the fob.
Verb. (old).—1. To rob; to cheat; to pocket; also to fob off.
1700. Congreve, Way of the World, i., 9. There were items of such a
treaty in embrio; and if it shou’d come to life poor Mirabell wou’d
be in some sort unfortunately fobb’d, i’faith.
1703. Mrs. Centlivre, Stolen Heiress, III., iv., wks. (1872), i.,
358. I shall be fobbed of my mistress by and by. Why, Frank, why,
thou wilt not fob me, wilt thou?
1731. Fielding, Grub Street Opera, i., 5. While ev’ry one else he
is fobbing, He still may be honest to me.
1789. Wolcot [P. Pinder], Rowland for an Oliver, in wks. (Dublin,
1795), Vol. II., p. 159. To use a cant phrase, we’ve been finely
fobb’d, Indeed, have very dext’rously been robb’d.
1840. Howitt, Visits to Remarkable Places, p. 170. Very pretty sums
he has fobbed now and then.
1842. Punch, III., p. 239, col. 2. The world turns its back on you,
and neither by cards nor dice can you fob your brother mortal out
of a single guinea.
2. (old).—To deceive; trifle with; disappoint; to put off dishonestly
or unfairly.
1598. Shakspeare, 2 Henry IV., ii., 1. A hundred mark is a long
loan for a poor lone woman to bear, and I have borne, and borne,
and borne, and have been fubbed off and fubbed off.
1602. Shakspeare, Othello, IV., 2. I think it is scurvy, and begin
to find myself fobbed in it.
1610. Shakspeare, Coriolanus, I., 1. You must not think to fob off
our disgrace with a tale.
1884. Fortnightly Review, XXXVI., p. 75. In nothing are amateur
backers of horses fobbed off by professionals with less than the
legitimate odds than in backing double and triple events.
1864. The Tramp Exposed, p. 7. A miserable, a job lot of humanity
as had ever been fobbed off on a defrauded universe.
To gut a fob, verb. phr. (old).—To pick pockets. Cf., Fob, verbal sense
1. For synonyms, see Prig.
1819. Moore, Tom Crib’s Memorial, 1. Diddling your subjects, and
gutting their fobs.
Fobus, subs. (old).—An opprobrious epithet.
1677. Wycherley, Plain Dealer, II., 1. Ay, you old fobus.