Word.ws English Dictionary

given someone the brush-off

given someone the brush-off is the past participle of give someone the brush-off.

Meaning of give someone the brush-off

Verb

give someone the brush-off (third-person singular simple present gives someone the brush-off, present participle giving someone the brush-off, simple past gave someone the brush-off, past participle given someone the brush-off)

  1. (idiomatic, intransitive) To rebuff, snub or curtly reject someone.
    • I asked three different clerks, and they all gave me the brush-off.
    Synonyms:
    give somebody the run-around, give somebody the cold shoulder

Questions about given someone the brush-off

What is given someone the brush-off the past participle of?
Given someone the brush-off is the past participle of give someone the brush-off.

Words near given someone the brush-off in the dictionary

  1. given someone something to think about
  2. given someone the air
  3. given someone the arm
  4. given someone the bag
  5. given someone the boot
  6. given someone the brush-off
  7. given someone the business
  8. given someone the chair
  9. given someone the cold shoulder
  10. given someone the creeps
  11. given someone the eye

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: given someone the brush-off (page history and authors); give someone the brush-off (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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