tearoff

Noun

tear-off (plural tear-offs)

1. A strip or sheet of paper, plastic film, etc., that is designed to be removed by tearing or pulling off.
   • My visor was covered in mud, and I had used up all the tear-offs.
2. A pull-down menu that can be detached from its parent menu bar and dragged around the screen.
   • Tear-offs are rarely found in modern interfaces, though, so typically you'll want to disable the tear-off feature by default.2009, John K. Ousterhout, Ken Jones, Tcl and the Tk Toolkit
3. A COM (Component Object Model) interface that is instantiated only when explicitly requested.
   • This makes tearoffs especially risky for objects that may be accessed remotely. Given all of the potential pitfalls of tearoffs, a logical question might be, "when are tearoffs appropriate?" There is no absolute answer; […]1998, Don Box, Essential COM, page 183
4. The demolition phase of a reroofing job, wherein the old shingles or other materials are torn off in preparation for the installation of new ones.
   • Holonyms: reroofing, roofing

See all 5 meanings of tear-off