Phrasal verb
fob off on
Definition
phrasal verb. to give someone a task or an item that you do not want because it is low quality or boring.
phrasal verb. to deceitfully or unfairly transfer an unwanted task, responsibility, or inferior item to another person.
Examples
“He tried to fob his old phone off on me.”
“The manager always tries to fob the weekend shifts off on the new interns.”
“The company attempted to fob the blame for the environmental disaster off on a minor subcontractor to protect its stock price.”
Examples
simple
“He tried to fob his old phone off on me.”
contextual
“The manager always tries to fob the weekend shifts off on the new interns.”
complex
“The company attempted to fob the blame for the environmental disaster off on a minor subcontractor to protect its stock price.”
Usage
usually implies the person receiving the thing is being tricked or treated unfairly.
Teaching tip
this is a three-part phrasal verb that is often used with 'fob off' (to give an excuse) but adding 'on' specifies the victim of the action.
Pitfall
He fobbed off the work to me.
He fobbed the work off on me.
the preposition 'on' is required to indicate the person receiving the unwanted thing, and 'to' is incorrect here.
Phrasal verb
Particles
off on
Separability
optional
Pattern
fob + object + off + on + person
Synonyms
Antonyms
Grammar
Scan code
englishreference.com/q/fob-off-on