Word.ws English Dictionary

off

/ɒf//ɔf/

off adverb: in a direction away from the speaker or other reference point.

Adverb

off (not comparable)

  1. In a direction away from the speaker or other reference point.
    • He drove off in a cloud of smoke.
    • 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., →OCLC, page 46
  2. Into a state of non-operation or non-existence.
    • Please switch off the light when you leave.
    • The dinosaurs died off long ago.
  3. So as to remove or separate, or be removed or separated.
    • He bit off the end of the carrot.
    • Some branches were sawn off.
  4. Specifying the number of some item in bills, parts lists, etc.
    • 3 off 20 amp fuses
  5. Offstage.
    • noises off
  6. 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

off (comparative more off, superlative most off)

  1. (predicative) Inoperative, disabled.
    • All the lights are off.
    Antonyms:
    on
  2. (predicative) Cancelled; not happening.
    • The party's off because the hostess is sick.
  3. Not fitted; not being worn.
    • Your feet will feel better once those tight boots are off.
    • The drink spilled out of the bottle because the top was off.
  4. Not correct; not properly formed; not logical, harmonious, etc.
    • This calculation is off: the numbers don't add up.
    • Is it right to say 'the amount of cars'? It sounds off to me.
  5. (predicative) Inappropriate; untoward.
    • I felt that his comments were a bit off.
  6. Less than normal, in temperament or in result.
    • sales are off this quarter
  7. Designating a time when one is not performing to the best of one's abilities.
  8. (UK) Rancid, rotten, gone bad.
    • This milk is off!
    Antonyms:
    fresh
  9. (Australia, broadly, slang) Disgusting, repulsive, abhorrent.
  10. (usually, 'poorly off', 'comfortably off', and in 'how?' questions) Circumstanced.
    • Our family used to be well off; now we're very badly off.
    • How are you off for milk? Shall I get you some more from the shop?
  11. 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.
  12. Far; off to the side.
    • He took me down the corridor and into an off room.
    • the off horse or ox in a team, in distinction from the nigh or near horse
Show 6 more meaningsShow fewer meanings
  1. Temporarily not attending a usual place, such as work or school, especially owing to illness or holiday.
    • John's off today. He's back on Wednesday.
  2. 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
  3. (predicative) Presently unavailable. (of a dish on a menu)
    • I'll have the chicken please. — Sorry, chicken's off today.
  4. (UK) On the side furthest from the kerb (the right-hand side if one drives on the left).
    • The off front wheel came loose.
    • 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
    Antonyms:
    near, nigh
  5. 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
  6. (slang) Offsuit.

Preposition

off

  1. Not positioned upon; away from a position upon.
    • He's off the roof now.
    • I took it off the table.
  2. Detached, separated, excluded or disconnected from; away from a position of attachment or connection to.
    • The phone is off the hook
    • The coat fell off the peg.
  3. Outside the area or region of.
    • The suspect is now believed to be off the campus.
    • I couldn't see what it said because the line of text ran off the page.
  4. Temporarily not attending (a usual place), especially owing to illness or holiday.
    • off work; off school
  5. Used to indicate the location or direction of one thing relative to another, implying adjacency or accessibility via.
    • His office is off this corridor on the right.
    • We're just off the main road.
    1. Used to express location at sea relative to land or mainland.
      • The island is 23 miles off the cape.
    2. Used to indicate separation from a natural home or origin.
      • He used to be gone a lot of the time, off working on an oil rig.
  6. Removed or subtracted from.
    • There's 20% off the list price.
  7. No longer wanting or taking.
    • He's been off his feed since Tuesday.
    • He's off his meds again.
  8. (colloquial, more properly 'from') Out of the possession of.
    • He didn't buy it off him. He stole it off him.
  9. Placed after a number (of products or parts, as if a unit), in commerce or engineering.
    • I'd like to re-order those printer cartridges, let's say 5-off.
    • Tantalum bar 6 off 3/8" Dia × 12" — Atom, Great Britain Atomic Energy Authority, 1972
  10. (slang) Under the influence of.
    • The guy was off a perc.
  11. (informal) As a result of; resulting from the actions of.
    • The team won off a late-game fumble by an opposing player.
    • The economy is rising off the strength of the tech sector.

Verb

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

  1. (slang, transitive) To kill.
    • 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. (Nigeria, Philippines, Singapore, transitive) To switch off.
    • Can you off the light?

Noun

off (uncountable)

  1. (usually, usually in phrases such as 'from the off', 'at the off') Beginning; starting point.
    • He has been very obviously an untrustworthy narrator right from the off.
    • 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 Jan 2022

Examples of off in a sentence

  • Please take your clothes off so that I can examine you.
  • The guitar isn't tuned properly. The bottom E is off.
  • He was thrown off the team for cheating.
  • We've been off the grid for three days now.
  • We're off their radar.
  • He's off the computer, but he's still on the phone.

All 40 example sentences with off

Synonyms of off

Antonyms

Forms of off

Adverb
alternative English Scotland US regionaloffn
Adjective
comparativemore off
superlativemost off
Verb
third-person singular presentoffs
present participleoffing
past participleoffed
pastoffed

Origin of off

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

Words formed from off

Phrases with off

155 more phrasesFewer phrases

Questions about off

What does off mean?
Off means in a direction away from the speaker or other reference point.
How do you use off in a sentence?
Please take your clothes off so that I can examine you.
What part of speech is off?
Off can be an adverb, an adjective, a preposition or a verb.
How do you pronounce off?
Off is pronounced /ɒf/ (UK).

Words near off in the dictionary

  1. OFCs
  2. OFDM
  3. ofer
  4. ofers
  5. OFEX
  6. off
  7. off air
  8. off and on
  9. off and running
  10. off angle
  11. off angled

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: 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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Pvanp7-off.wav, en-au-off.ogg, en-us-off.ogg.

Cite this entry: “off.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/off. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.