Definition of "off"

off

/ɒf/

adverb
not comparable
1. In a direction away from the speaker or other reference point.
  Quotations
  No matter how early I came down, I would find him on the veranda, smoking cigarettes, or […] . And at last I began to realize in my harassed soul that all elusion was futile, and to take such holidays as I could get, when he was off with a girl, in a spirit of thankfulness.
  1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter IV, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., page 46
  So this was my future home, I thought! […] Backed by towering hills, the but faintly discernible purple line of the French boundary off to the southwest, a sky of palest Gobelin flecked with fat, fleecy little clouds, it in truth looked a dear little city; the city of one's dreams.
  1908, W[illiam] B[lair] M[orton] Ferguson, chapter IV, in Zollenstein, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company
2. Into a state of non-operation or non-existence.
3. So as to remove or separate, or be removed or separated.
  Quotations
  The space had been sectioned off with colorful plastic shelves so that her textbooks rested on the bottom and her binders and personal effects lay across the middle.
  2010, Jo Whittemore, Front Page Face-Off, page 113
4. (theater) Offstage.
5. 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
comparative more off, superlative most off
1. Inoperative, disabled.
2. Cancelled; not happening.
3. Not fitted; not being worn.
4. Rancid, rotten, gone bad.
5. (by extension, Australia, slang) Disgusting, repulsive, abhorrent.
6. Less than normal, in temperament or in result.
7. Inappropriate; untoward.
8. (in phrases such as 'well off', 'poorly off', etc., and in 'how?' questions) Circumstanced.
  Quotations
  '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
  2008, Kiron K. Skinner with Bruce Bueno de Mesquita and Serhiy Kudelia, The Strategy of Campaigning
9. Started on the way.
  Quotations
  —Hello, Bloom. Where are you off to?—Hello, M’Coy. Nowhere in particular.
  1922, James Joyce, chapter V, in Ulysses‎
  "But I'm off, Mr. Malone. We sit once a week and have done for four years without a break. Eight o'clock Thursdays."
  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
  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.
  1990, Peter Pinney, The glass cannon: a Bougainville diary, 1944-45
10. Far; off to the side.
  Quotations
  He came in, took a look and squinched down into a chair in an off corner and didn’t open his mouth.
  1937, Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God, Harper Perennial, published 2000, page 151
11. 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.
12. (in phrases such as 'off day') Designating a time when one is not performing to the best of one's abilities.
13. Presently unavailable. (of a dish on a menu)
14. (Britain, in relation to a vehicle) On the side furthest from the kerb (the right-hand side if one drives on the left).
  Quotations
  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.
  1963, Jack Schaefer, Monte Walsh, page 174
15. (cricket) In, or towards the half of the field away from the batsman's legs; the right side for a right-handed batsman.
preposition
1. Not positioned upon, or away from a position upon.
2. Detached, separated, excluded or disconnected from; away from a position of attachment or connection to.
3. Used to indicate the location or direction of one thing relative to another, implying adjacency or accessibility via.
4. Used to express location at sea relative to land or mainland.
5. Removed or subtracted from.
6. No longer wanting or taking.
7. (colloquial, more properly 'from') Out of the possession of.
8. Placed after a number (of products or parts, as if a unit), in commerce or engineering.
verb
third-person singular simple present offs, present participle offing, simple past and past participle offed
1. (transitive, slang) To kill.
  Quotations
  Most sorely missed is the relationship between Eggsy and Colin Firth’s delightfully avuncular mentor figure Harry Hart, who was offed, seemingly definitively with a bullet to the brain towards its end.
  2017 September 19, Gwilym Mumford, “Kingsman: The Golden Circle review – spy sequel reaches new heights of skyscraping silliness”, in the Guardian‎
2. (transitive, Singapore, Philippines, Nigeria) To switch off.
noun
uncountable
1. (usually in phrases such as 'from the off', 'at the off', etc.) Beginning; starting point.
  Quotations
  2023 Royal Ascot suit ... are you ready for the off?(title)
  2022 December 1, “2023 Royal Ascot suit ... are you ready for the off?”, in anthonyformalwear.co.uk‎, archived from the original on 24 January 2022

Definition of "off"

off

adverb

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adjective

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preposition

verb

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noun

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