off

• offn

From Middle English of, from Old English of, af, æf (“from, off, away”), from Proto-Germanic *ab (“from”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂epo (“from, off, back”). Cognate with Scots of, af (“off, away”), West Frisian af, ôf (“off, away”), Dutch af (“off, from”), German Low German of (“off, from”), German ab (“off, from”), Danish af (“of, off”), Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk and Swedish av (“of, off”), Icelandic af (“of, off”), Gothic 𐌰𐍆 (af, “of, from”); and with Latin ab (“of, from, by”), Ancient Greek ἀπό (apó, “from”), and others. Doublet of of.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ɒf/
• (Conservative RP) IPA^(key): /ɔːf/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ɔf/
• (cot–caught merger, Canada) IPA^(key): /ɑf/

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• Rhymes: -ɒf
• Rhymes: -ɔːf

off (not comparable)

1. In a direction away from the speaker or object.
   • 1898, Winston Churchill, chapter 4, in The Celebrity:

     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.

   He drove off in a cloud of smoke.

2. Into a state of non-operation; into a state of non-existence.

   Please switch off the light when you leave.

   die off

3. So as to be removed or separated.

   He bit off more than he could chew.

   Some branches were sawn off.

• off is used as an adverbial particle in a number of phrasal verbs (shake off, show off, switch off, take off, and so forth). This is not to be confused with prepositional use (e.g. jump off the table, keep off the grass; see below).

off (comparative more off, superlative most off)

1. Inoperative, disabled.

   Antonym: on

   All the lights are off.

2. Rancid, rotten.

   Antonym: fresh

   This milk is off!

3. (cricket) In, or towards the half of the field away from the batsman's legs; the right side for a right-handed batsman.

   Antonyms: on, leg

4. Less than normal, in temperament or in result.

   sales are off this quarter

5. Inappropriate; untoward.

   I felt that his comments were a bit off.

6. Circumstanced (as in well off, better off, poorly off).
   • 2008, Kiron K. Skinner; Bruce Bueno de Mesquita, Serhiy Kudelia, The Strategy of Campaigning:

     '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

7. Started on the way.

   off to see the wizard

   And they're off! Whatsmyname takes an early lead, with Remember The Mane behind by a nose.

   • 1990, Peter Pinney, The glass cannon: a Bougainville diary, 1944-45:

     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.

8. Far; off to the side.

   the off horse or ox in a team, in distinction from the nigh or near horse

   • 1908, W[illiam] B[lair] M[orton] Ferguson, chapter IV, in Zollenstein, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, OCLC 731476803:

     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.

   • 1937, Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God, Harper Perennial (2000), p.151:

     He came in, took a look and squinched down into a chair in an off corner and didn’t open his mouth.

9. 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.

   He took an off day for fishing.  an off year in politics; the off season

10. (in phrases such as 'off day') Designating a time when one is not performing to the best of one's abilities.
11. (of a dish on a menu) Presently unavailable.

    — I'll have the chicken please.

    — Sorry, chicken's off today.

12. Right-hand (in relation to the side of a horse or a vehicle).

    Synonym: near

    • 1963, Jack Schaefer: Monte Walsh, page 174:

      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.

off

1. Used to indicate movement away from a position on

   I took it off the table.

   Come off the roof!

2. (colloquial) Out of the possession of.

   He didn't buy it off him. He stole it off him.

3. Away from or not on.

   He's off the computer, but he's still on the phone.

   Keep off the grass.

4. Disconnected or subtracted from.

   We've been off the grid for three days now.

   He took 20% off the list price.

5. Distant from.

   We're just off the main road.

   The island is 23 miles off the cape.

6. No longer wanting or taking.

   He's been off his feed since Tuesday.

   He's off his meds again.

7. Placed after a number (of products or parts, as if a unit), in commerce or engineering.

   Tantalum bar 6 off 3/8" Dia × 12" — Atom, Great Britain Atomic Energy Authority, 1972

   samples submitted … 12 off Thermistors type 1K3A531 … — BSI test report for shock and vibration testing, 2000

   I'd like to re-order those printer cartridges, let's say 5-off.

• on

off (third-person singular simple present offs, present participle offing, simple past and past participle offed)

1. (transitive, slang) To kill.

   He got in the way so I had him offed.

   • 2017 September 19, Gwilym Mumford, “Kingsman: The Golden Circle review – spy sequel reaches new heights of skyscraping silliness”, in the Guardian‎:

     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.

2. (transitive, Singapore, Philippines) To switch off.

   Can you off the light?

off (uncountable)

1. (usually in phrases such as 'from the off', 'at the off', etc.) Beginning; starting point.

   He has been very obviously an untrustworthy narrator right from the off.

• off at OneLook Dictionary Search

• off on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

• FFO

• ov (alternative spelling)
• ob (western Moselle Franconian; otherwise as a variant, but only in the sense of “if”)

From Old High German of, *ova, northern variant of oba.

• IPA^(key): /ɔf/

off

1. (most dialects) if (in the sense of whether)

   Ich weeß net, off dat stemmp.

   I don’t know if that’s true.

2. (Ripuarian) or

   Dat mösse foffzig off sechsig Mann jewäs senn.

   They must’ve been fifty or sixty people.

   Donnersdaach off Friedaach moss ich nohm Finanzamp.

   I need to go to the tax office Thursday or Friday.

• Though formerly generally applicable, the Ripuarian off (“or”) is now used only in vague statements or estimates. The word odder is used in order to express an actual alternative.