Word.ws English Dictionary

off the tools

off the tools prepositional phrase: working in a trade as a foreman, administrator, business owner, etc., rather than doing manual labour.

Prepositional phrase

  1. Working in a trade as a foreman, administrator, business owner, etc., rather than doing manual labour.
    • BRICKLAYERS. MEETING, MONDAY NIGHT, 17th. Those working in the Trade, and those in industry off the tools, are specially requested to attend re immediate work at the trade.1943 May 15, The Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners' Advocate, Newcastle, NSW, page 5, column 1

Questions about off the tools

What does off the tools mean?
Off the tools means working in a trade as a foreman, administrator, business owner, etc., rather than doing manual labour.
What part of speech is off the tools?
Off the tools is a prepositional phrase.

Words near off the tools in the dictionary

  1. off the rip
  2. off the scale
  3. off the shelf
  4. off the shits
  5. off the table
  6. off the tools
  7. off the top of one's dome
  8. off the top of one's head
  9. off the track
  10. off the wagon
  11. off the wall

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: off the tools (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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Cite this entry: “off the tools.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/off_the_tools. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.