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put off
verb
- tr, adverb to postpone or delay
they have put off the dance until tomorrow
- tr, adverb to evade (a person) by postponement or delay
they tried to put him off, but he came anyway
- tr, adverb to confuse; disconcert
he was put off by her appearance
- tr, preposition to cause to lose interest in or enjoyment of
the accident put him off driving
- intr, adverb nautical to be launched off from shore or from a ship
we put off in the lifeboat towards the ship
- archaic.tr, adverb to remove (clothes)
noun
- a pretext or delay
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Idioms and Phrases
Delay or postpone, as in He always puts off paying his bills . This idiom, dating from the late 1300s, gave rise to the proverb Never put off until tomorrow what you can do today , first recorded in the late 1300s (in Chaucer's Tale of Melibee ) and repeated ever since. Also see put one off .Discover More
Example Sentences
I think I would have asked further, but Alan gave me the put-off.
At this Foxington laughed derisively, saying that it sounded very like a put-off.
I've ridden in from Kildare to-night to see the match, and I protest against any put-off.
The baby listened for a moment, then, deciding that this was only a put-off, began to cry again.
Here was another day wasted, and who was to say that the same put-off did not await me to-morrow?
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[tawr-choo-uhs ]
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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
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