Off

• POS: Adjective, Noun, Preposition, Adverb

CIDE DICTIONARY

Off, adv. [OE. of, orig. the same word as R. of, prep., AS. of, adv. & prep. √194. See Of.].

•  In a general sense, denoting from or away from; as:  [1913 Webster]
•  Denoting distance or separation; as, the house is a mile off.  [1913 Webster]
•  Denoting the action of removing or separating; separation; as, to take off the hat or cloak; to cut off, to pare off, to clip off, to peel off, to tear off, to march off, to fly off, and the like.  [1913 Webster]
•  Denoting a leaving, abandonment, departure, abatement, interruption, or remission; as, the fever goes off; the pain goes off; the game is off; all bets are off.  [1913 Webster]
•  Denoting a different direction; not on or towards: away; as, to look off.  [1913 Webster]

  "The questions no way touch upon puritanism, either off or on."  [1913 Webster]
•  Denoting opposition or negation.  [1913 Webster]

From off, off from; off. “A live coal . . . taken with the tongs from off the altar.” Is. vi. 6. -- Off and on. (a) Not constantly; not regularly; now and then; occasionally. (b) (Naut.) On different tacks, now toward, and now away from, the land. -- To be off. (a) To depart; to escape; as, he was off without a moment's warning. (b) To be abandoned, as an agreement or purpose; as, the bet was declared to be off. [Colloq.] -- To come off, To cut off, To fall off, To go off, etc. See under Come, Cut, Fall, Go, etc. -- To get off. (a) To utter; to discharge; as, to get off a joke. (b) To go away; to escape; as, to get off easily from a trial. [Colloq.] -- To take off To do a take-off on, To take off, to mimic, lampoon, or impersonate. -- To tell off (a) (Mil.), to divide and practice a regiment or company in the several formations, preparatory to marching to the general parade for field exercises. Farrow. (b) to rebuke (a person) for an improper action; to scold; to reprimand. -- To be well off, to be in good condition. -- To be ill off, To be badly off, to be in poor condition.

Off, interj. 

 Away; begone; -- a command to depart.  [1913 Webster]

Off, prep. 

 Not on; away from; as, to be off one's legs or off the bed; two miles off the shore.  Addison.  [1913 Webster]

Off hand. See Offhand. -- Off side (Football), out of play; -- said when a player has got in front of the ball in a scrimmage, or when the ball has been last touched by one of his own side behind him. -- To be off color, (a) to be of a wrong color. (b) to be mildly obscene. -- To be off one's food or To be off one's feed, (Colloq.) to have no appetite; to be eating less than usual.

Off, a. 

•  On the farther side; most distant; on the side of an animal or a team farthest from the driver when he is on foot; in the United States, the right side; as, the off horse or ox in a team, in distinction from the nigh or near horse or ox; the off leg.  [1913 Webster]
•  Designating a time when one is not strictly attentive to business or affairs, or is absent from his post, and, hence, a time when affairs are not urgent; as, he took an off day for fishing: an off year in politics.  Thackeray.  [1913 Webster]
•  Designating a time when one's performance is below normal; as, he had an off day.  [PJC]

Off side. (a) The right hand side in driving; the farther side. See Gee. (b) (Cricket) See Off, n.

Off, n. 

 The side of the field that is on the right of the wicket keeper.  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

Off, adv., prep., adj., & n.
--adv.
1 away; at or to a distance (drove off; is three miles off).
2 out of position; not on or touching or attached; loose, separate, gone (has come off; take your coat off).
3 so as to be rid of (sleep it off).
4 so as to break continuity or continuance; discontinued, stopped (turn off the radio; take a day off; the game is off).
5 not available as a choice, e.g. on a menu (chips are off).
6 to the end; entirely; so as to be clear (clear off; finish off; pay off).
7 situated as regards money, supplies, etc. (is badly off; is not very well off).
8 off-stage (noises off).
9 (of food etc.) beginning to decay.
10 (with preceding numeral) denoting a quantity produced or made at one time (esp. one-off).
--prep.
1 a from; away or down or up from (fell off the chair; took something off the price; jumped off the edge). b not on (was already off the pitch).
2 a (temporarily) relieved of or abstaining from (off duty; am off my diet). b not attracted by for the time being (off their food; off smoking). c not achieving or doing one's best in (off form; off one's game).
3 using as a source or means of support (live off the land).
4 leading from; not far from (a street off the Strand).
5 at a short distance to sea from (sank off Cape Horn).
--adj.
1 far, further (the off side of the wall).
2 (of a part of a vehicle, animal, or road) right (the off front wheel).
3 Cricket designating the half of the field (as divided lengthways through the pitch) to which the striker's feet are pointed.
--n.
1 Cricket the off side.
2 the start of a race.

Idiom

a bit off Brit. colloq.
1 rather annoying or unfair.
2 somewhat unwell (am feeling a bit off). off and on intermittently; now and then. off-centre not quite coinciding with a central position. the off chance see CHANCE.
off colour
1 not in good health.
2 US somewhat indecent. off the cuff see CUFF(1). off-day a day when one is not at one's best. off-drive Cricket drive (the ball) to the off side. off one's feet see FOOT. off form see FORM. off guard see GUARD. off one's hands see HAND. off one's head see HEAD.
off-key
1 out of tune.
2 not quite suitable or fitting.
off-licence Brit.
1 a shop selling alcoholic drink for consumption elsewhere.
2 a licence for this. off limits see LIMIT. off-line Computing (of a computer terminal or process) not directly controlled by or connected to a central processor. off of sl. disp. = OFF prep. (picked it off of the floor). off-peak used or for use at times other than those of greatest demand. off the peg see PEG. off-piste (of skiing) away from prepared ski runs. off the point adj. irrelevant.
--adv. irrelevantly. off-putting Brit. disconcerting; repellent. off the record see RECORD. off-road attrib.adj.
1 away from the road, on rough terrain.
2 (of a vehicle etc.) designed for rough terrain or for cross-country driving. off-season a time when business etc. is slack. off-stage adj. & adv. not on the stage and so not visible or audible to the audience. off-street (esp. of parking vehicles) other than on a street. off-time a time when business etc. is slack. off-the-wall sl. crazy, absurd, outlandish. off-white white with a grey or yellowish tinge.

Etymology

orig. var. of OF, to distinguish the sense

THESAURUS

Off

aberrant, abnormal, abroad, absonant, absurd, adrift, adulterated, all abroad, all off, all wrong, aloof, amiss, askew, astray, at a distance, at fault, at leisure, at liberty, at loose ends, atonal, available, away, awry, babbling, barring, below par, below standard, below the mark, bereft of reason, beside the mark, blast, blemished, blot out, blown, brainsick, bump off, cacophonous, casual, clockwise, conservative, contrasting, corrupt, counter, crackbrained, cracked, crazed, crazy, croak, curious, daft, damaged, deceptive, defective, deficient, delirious, deluded, delusive, demented, deprived of reason, deranged, deviant, deviational, deviative, dexter, dextral, dextrocardial, dextrocerebral, dextrocular, dextrogyrate, dextrogyratory, dextropedal, dextrorotary, dextrorse, diaphonic, different, disconsonant, discordant, discounting, disengaged, disharmonic, disharmonious, disoriented, disparate, dissimilar, dissonant, distantly, distorted, distraught, divergent, diverse, dizzy, do in, down, eccentric, erase, errant, erring, erroneous, except, excepting, exception taken of, excluding, exclusive of, extra, fallacious, fallible, fallow, false, fat, faultful, faulty, fix, flat, flawed, flighty, forth, found wanting, freaked out, freaky, free, from, frowy, funny, gamy, get, giddy, give the business, grating, gun down, hallucinated, hardly like, harsh, hence, heretical, heterodox, high, hit, ice, idle, illogical, illusory, immature, immelodious, impaired, imperfect, imprecise, impure, in blue water, inaccurate, inadequate, incidental, incoherent, incomplete, inexact, inharmonic, inharmonious, insane, irrational, jobless, kooky, lacking, lay out, leaving out, leisure, leisured, less, lightheaded, loco, lumpen, lunatic, mad, maddened, makeshift, manic, mazed, mediocre, mental, mentally deficient, meshuggah, minus, mixed, moon-struck, musicless, negligible, non compos, non compos mentis, nonmelodious, nonuniform, not all there, not counting, not perfect, not right, not true, occasional, oceanward, oceanwards, odd, oddball, of unsound mind, off duty, off soundings, off the track, off the wall, off work, off-key, off-tone, offbeat, offshore, otiose, out, out of employ, out of harness, out of pitch, out of soundings, out of tone, out of tune, out of work, out-of-the-way, outlandish, outside, over, part-time, partial, passing strange, patchy, peccant, peculiar, perverse, perverted, polish off, psycho, quaint, queer, rambling, rancid, rank, ranting, raucous, raving, reactionary, reasonless, reechy, remotely, right, right-hand, right-wing, right-wingish, rub out, save, scarcely like, seaward, seawards, self-contradictory, senseless, settle, sharp, short, shrill, sick, side, singular, sketchy, slack, slender, slight, slim, sluggish, small, sour, soured, spare, stale, starboard, stark-mad, stark-staring mad, strange, straying, strident, strong, substandard, tainted, take care of, tetched, thence, therefrom, thereof, touched, tuneless, turned, unalike, unbalanced, undeveloped, unearthly, unemployable, unemployed, uneven, unfactual, unfinished, unharmonious, unhinged, unidentical, unlike, unmatched, unmelodious, unmusical, unoccupied, unorthodox, unperfected, unproved, unresembling, unsame, unsane, unsettled, unsimilar, unsound, unthorough, untrue, untunable, untuned, untuneful, wandering, wanting, waste, weird, whence, wide, wipe out, without, witless, wondrous strange, wrong, zap

ROGET THESAURUS

Off

Distance

N distance, space, remoteness, farness, far- cry to, longinquity, elongation, offing, background, remote region, removedness, parallax, reach, span, stride, outpost, outskirt, horizon, aphelion, foreign parts, ultima Thule, ne plus ultra, antipodes, long range, giant's stride, dispersion, length, cosmic distance, light-years, distant, far off, far away, remote, telescopic, distal, wide of, stretching to, yon, yonder, ulterior, transmarine, transpontine, transatlantic, transalpine, tramontane, ultramontane, ultramundane, hyperborean, antipodean, inaccessible, out of the way, unapproached, unapproachable, incontiguous, far off, far away, afar, afar off, off, away, a long way off, a great way off, a good way off, wide away, aloof, wide of, clear of, out of the way, out of reach, abroad, yonder, farther, further, beyond, outre mer, over the border, far and wide, over the hills and far away, from pole to pole, to the uttermost parts, to the ends of the earth, out of hearing, nobody knows where, a perte de vue, out of the sphere of, wide of the mark, a far cry to, apart, asunder, wide apart, wide asunder, longo intervallo, at arm's length, distance lends enchantment, it's a long long way to Tipperary, out of sight, out of mind.