ENGLISH
REFERENCE

fob off onto

phr. v..
C1 Advanced Oxford British English Informal

phr. v.. to give someone a task or an object that you do not want because it is boring or poor quality.

phr. v.. to deceitfully or unfairly transfer a responsibility, task, or inferior item to another person to avoid dealing with it oneself.


SIMPLE

He tried to fob the extra work off onto his assistant.

CONTEXTUAL

The manager always fobs the difficult customers off onto the new staff members.

COMPLEX

The company attempted to fob the blame for the environmental disaster off onto a small subsidiary to protect its primary brand reputation.

Particles
off onto
Separability
optional
Pattern
fob + object + off + onto + person
Usage

usually implies the recipient is being treated unfairly or given something of low value.

Teaching tip

highlight the three-part structure and the negative connotation of laziness or dishonesty; 'fob off' can also be used alone to mean 'to give an excuse'.

Pitfall

He fobbed off the task to me.He fobbed the task off onto me.the full three-part phrasal verb requires 'onto' when specifying the recipient of the unwanted item.

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