Word.ws English Dictionary

off the wall

off the wall is the alternative spelling of off-the-wall.

Meaning of off-the-wall

Adjective

off-the-wall (comparative more off-the-wall, superlative most off-the-wall)

  1. (idiomatic) Wildly unconventional; bizarre; absurd.
    • What kind of a harebrained, off-the-wall idea is that?
  2. (idiomatic) Of a person's behaviour: greatly inappropriate.
    • All of their friends were amazed that they were familiar with a war hero. Some began to understand Chips' moods and drinking. His "off the wall" behaviour at times. And unknowingly they were "forgiving" him.2012, Reginald Pierce, The Paladin, page 204

Forms of off the wall

comparativemore off the wall
superlativemost off the wall

Questions about off the wall

What is off the wall the alternative spelling of?
Off the wall is the alternative spelling of off-the-wall.

Words near off the wall in the dictionary

  1. off the tools
  2. off the top of one's dome
  3. off the top of one's head
  4. off the track
  5. off the wagon
  6. off the wall
  7. off the water cart
  8. off the water wagon
  9. off time
  10. off times
  11. off to the races

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: off the wall (page history and authors); off-the-wall (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 wall.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/off_the_wall. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.