off
Language: English
Part of speech: prep
Pronunciation: ipa: /ɒf/
ipa: /ɔːf/
enpr: ŏf
ipa: /ɔf/
ipa: /ɒf/
ipa: [ɔːf]
ipa: /ɑf/
rhymes: (Received Pronunciation) -ɒf
rhymes: (older Received Pronunciation, General American) -ɔːf
rhymes: (cot–caught merger) -ɑf
Forms: form: offn
Etymology: From Middle English of, from Old English of, af, æf (“from, off, away”), from Proto-West Germanic *ab, from Proto-Germanic *ab (“from”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂epo (“from, off, back”). Doublet of of.
Cognates
Cognate with Scots aff (“away, off”), Saterland Frisian oawe, ou (“from”), West Frisian ôf (“away, off”), Dutch af (“from, off”), German ab (“from, off”), German Low German, Luxembourgish of (“off”), Yiddish אָפּ (op, “off”), Danish, Icelandic af (“from, off”), Faroese, Norwegian Bokmål and Norwegian Nynorsk av (“off”), Swedish af, av (“off”), Gothic 𐌰𐍆 (af, “of, from”); and with Latin ab (“of, from, by”), Ancient Greek ἀπό (apó, “from”), and others.
Senses: examples: text: He's off the roof now.
text: I took it off the table.
text: Keep off the grass.
glosses: Not positioned upon, or away from a position upon.
examples: text: The phone is off the hook
text: The coat fell off the peg.
text: He was thrown off the team for cheating.
text: We've been off the grid for three days now.
text: We're off their radar.
text: He's off the computer, but he's still on the phone.
glosses: Detached, separated, excluded or disconnected from; away from a position of attachment or connection to.
examples: text: The suspect is now believed to be off the campus.
text: I couldn't see what it said because the line of text ran off the page.
glosses: Outside the area or region of.
examples: text: off work; off school
glosses: Temporarily not attending (a usual place), especially owing to illness or holiday.
examples: text: His office is off this corridor on the right.
text: We're just off the main road.
text: Look! There's a UFO off our left wing!
glosses: Used to indicate the location or direction of one thing relative to another, implying adjacency or accessibility via.
examples: text: The island is 23 miles off the cape.
glosses: Used to indicate the location or direction of one thing relative to another, implying adjacency or accessibility via.
Used to express location at sea relative to land or mainland.
examples: text: There's 20% off the list price.
glosses: Removed or subtracted from.
examples: text: He's been off his feed since Tuesday.
text: He's off his meds again.
glosses: No longer wanting or taking.
examples: text: He didn't buy it off him. He stole it off him.
qualifier: more properly 'from'
glosses: Out of the possession of.
examples: text: I'd like to re-order those printer cartridges, let's say 5-off.
text: Tantalum bar 6 off 3/8" Dia × 12" — Atom, Great Britain Atomic Energy Authority, 1972
text: samples submitted … 12 off Thermistors type 1K3A531 … — BSI test report for shock and vibration testing, 2000
glosses: Placed after a number (of products or parts, as if a unit), in commerce or engineering.
examples: text: The guy was off a perc.
topics: drugs
medicine
pharmacology
sciences
glosses: Under the influence of.
examples: text: The team won off a late-game fumble by an opposing player.
text: The economy is rising off the strength of the tech sector.
glosses: As a result of.
Derived terms: fall off the ugly tree
off-by-one
off-campus
off-lease
off-licence
off one's face
off one's feed
off one's game
off one's nut
off one's rocker
off-sale
off-street
off the dome
off the lay
off the scale
off the shelf
off-the-shelf
off the top of one's head
off-trade
offy
once-off
priced-off
roll off one's tongue
run off the tongue
trip off the tongue