off
UK /ɒf/ · US /ɔf/ adverb, adjective, preposition, verb, noun
Forms offs offing offed offn
- adverb In a direction away from the speaker or other reference point. “He drove off in a cloud of smoke.”
- adverb Into a state of non-operation or non-existence. “Please switch off the light when you leave.”
- adverb So as to remove or separate, or be removed or separated. “He bit off the end of the carrot.”
- adverb Specifying the number of some item in bills, parts lists, etc. “3 off 20 amp fuses”
- adverb (theater) Offstage. “noises off”
- adverb Used in various other ways specific to individual idiomatic phrases, e.g. bring off, show off, put off, tell off, etc. See the entry for the individual phrase.
- adjective (predicative only) Inoperative, disabled. “All the lights are off.”
- adjective (predicative only) Cancelled; not happening. “The party's off because the hostess is sick.”
- adjective Not fitted; not being worn. “Your feet will feel better once those tight boots are off.”
- adjective Not correct; not properly formed; not logical, harmonious, etc.
- adjective (predicative only) Inappropriate; untoward.
- adjective Less than normal, in temperament or in result. “sales are off this quarter”
- adjective (in phrases such as 'off day') Designating a time when one is not performing to the best of one's abilities.
- adjective (chiefly UK) Rancid, rotten, gone bad. “This milk is off!”
- preposition Not positioned upon; away from a position upon. “He's off the roof now.”
- preposition Detached, separated, excluded or disconnected from; away from a position of attachment or connection to. “The phone is off the hook”
- preposition Outside the area or region of. “The suspect is now believed to be off the campus.”
- preposition Temporarily not attending (a usual place), especially owing to illness or holiday. “off work; off school”
- preposition Used to indicate the location or direction of one thing relative to another, implying adjacency or accessibility via. “His office is off this corridor on the right.”
- preposition Used to express location at sea relative to land or mainland. “The island is 23 miles off the cape.”
Synonyms
away out murder slay hit dispatch bump off polish off remove cancelled sour turned forth
Antonyms
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.
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.
Webster’s 1913
- adverb In a general sense, denoting from or away from; as:
- adverb Denoting distance or separation; as, the house is a mile off.
- interjection Away; begone; --a command to depart.
- preposition Not on; away from; as, to be off one's legs or off the bed; two miles off the shore. Addison. Off hand. See Offhand.
Etymology [OE. of, orig. the same word as R. of, prep., AS. of, adv. & prep. *194. See Of.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “off”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details