off
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
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: more off
form: most off
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: All the lights are off.
antonyms: on
glosses: Inoperative, disabled.
examples: text: The party's off because the hostess is sick.
glosses: Cancelled; not happening.
examples: text: Your feet will feel better once those tight boots are off.
text: The drink spilled out of the bottle because the top was off.
glosses: Not fitted; not being worn.
examples: This calculation is off: the numbers don't add up.
Is it right to say 'the amount of cars'? It sounds off to me.
The guitar isn't tuned properly. The bottom E is off.
glosses: Denoting something faulty, unsatisfactory, objectionable etc.
Not correct; not properly formed; not logical, harmonious, etc.
examples: I felt that his comments were a bit off.
glosses: Denoting something faulty, unsatisfactory, objectionable etc.
Inappropriate; untoward.
examples: text: sales are off this quarter
glosses: Denoting something faulty, unsatisfactory, objectionable etc.
Less than normal, in temperament or in result.
glosses: Denoting something faulty, unsatisfactory, objectionable etc.
Designating a time when one is not performing to the best of one's abilities.
raw_tags: in phrases such as 'off day'
examples: text: This milk is off!
glosses: Denoting something faulty, unsatisfactory, objectionable etc.
Rancid, rotten, gone bad.
antonyms: fresh
glosses: Denoting something faulty, unsatisfactory, objectionable etc.
Disgusting, repulsive, abhorrent.
examples: text: Our family used to be well off; now we're very badly off.
text: How are you off for milk? Shall I get you some more from the shop?
text: 'Are you better off now than you were four years ago?' With that pointed question, Ronald Reagan defined the 1980 presidential election as a 92 referendum on Jimmy Carter's economic policies
ref: 2008, Kiron K. Skinner with Bruce Bueno de Mesquita and Serhiy Kudelia, The Strategy of Campaigning:
qualifier: 'poorly off'; and in 'how?' questions; 'poorly off'; and in 'how?' questions
glosses: Circumstanced.
raw_tags: in phrases such as 'well off'
examples: text: off to see the wizard
text: And they're off! Whatsmyname takes an early lead, with Remember The Mane behind by a nose.
text: —Hello, Bloom. Where are you off to?
—Hello, M’Coy. Nowhere in particular.
ref: 1922, James Joyce, chapter V, in Ulysses:
text: "But I'm off, Mr. Malone. We sit once a week and have done for four years without a break. Eight o'clock Thursdays."
ref: 1925 July – 1926 May, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “(please specify the chapter number)”, in The Land of Mist (eBook no. 0601351h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg Australia, published April 2019:
text: Let them glimpse a green man coming at them with intent, and they're off like a bride's nighty. Even after capture some of them will seize every attempt to suicide — they just can't live with the tremendous loss of face.
ref: 1990, Peter Pinney, The glass cannon: a Bougainville diary, 1944-45:
glosses: Started on the way.
examples: text: He took me down the corridor and into an off room.
text: the off horse or ox in a team, in distinction from the nigh or near horse
text: He came in, took a look and squinched down into a chair in an off corner and didn’t open his mouth.
ref: 1937, Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God, Harper Perennial, published 2000, page 151:
glosses: Far; off to the side.
examples: text: John's off today. He's back on Wednesday.
glosses: Temporarily not attending a usual place, such as work or school, especially owing to illness or holiday.
examples: text: He took an off day for fishing.  an off year in politics; the off season
glosses: Designating a time when one is not strictly attentive to business or affairs, or is absent from a post, and, hence, a time when affairs are not urgent.
examples: text: I'll have the chicken please. — Sorry, chicken's off today.
glosses: Presently unavailable. (of a dish on a menu)
examples: text: The off front wheel came loose.
text: The man and the horse came closer and were Sonny Jacobs of the Diamond Six and a smallish neat sorrel definitely favouring its off forefoot.
ref: 1963, Jack Schaefer, Monte Walsh, page 174:
antonyms: near
nigh
glosses: On the side furthest from the kerb (the right-hand side if one drives on the left).
raw_tags: in relation to a vehicle
topics: ball-games
cricket
games
hobbies
lifestyle
sports
antonyms: on
leg
glosses: In, or towards the half of the field away from the batsman's legs; the right side for a right-handed batsman.
Derived terms: off and running
offish
offness
off to the races