turn off

Verb

turn off (third-person singular simple present turns off, present participle turning off, simple past and past participle turned off)

1. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see turn, off.
   • He turned off from me and faced the far wall.
2. (transitive) To power down, to switch off, to put out of operation, to deactivate (an appliance, light, mechanism, functionality etc.).
   • Turn off the machine and unplug it when you leave.
   • In some people, this gene has been turned off.
   1. (broadly, transitive) To deactivate a heat source cooking a particular item.
      • You can turn off the green beans now.
   2. (intransitive, transitive, usually) To become deactivated; to become powered down.
      • My computer turned off!
   3. (transitive) To rotate a tap or valve so as to interrupt the outflow of liquid or gas.
      • Remember to turn the tap off once you've finished so you don't waste water.
   4. (obsolete, transitive) To dismiss; to fire.
      • The butler turned off that foolish maid.
      • Upon her first coming into my Family, she turned off a parcel of very careful Servants, who had been long with me1712, John Enville, edited by Henry Morley, The Spectator, George Routledge and Sons, page 430
3. (transitive) To bore, repulse, disgust, or discourage (someone).
   • That book's plot was so predictable, it turned me off.
   • Cigarette smoking really turns me off.
4. (intransitive) To leave a road; to exit a highway or other main road.
   • You'll need to turn off before we get to the county line.
   • Turn off at the next exit so we can have lunch.
5. (dated, transitive) To avert; to stop (something).
   • "Pardon my clumsiness," he said to the lady. "I am, unfortunately, quite blind. But," he added, with a smile, to turn off the mishap, "even a blind man must have a house."1914, Ernest Bramah, Max Carrados
   • she could not but be grateful to him when he turned off a scolding from the fierce and sullen old man1866 May 26, “Forest Life”, in Littell's Living Age (Fourth; 8), number 1147, Boston: Littel Son & Co., section III, page 555
6. (archaic, transitive) To turn out; to produce.
   • According to D. A. Wells, one boy and a machine can turn off 9,000 pair of sleeve buttons in a day.1895, The Dawn, volumes 7-8, page 4
   • The next day he did not drive himself so hard; but he turned off a good day's work, just the same2022, O. E. Rölvaag, chapter II, in Giants in the Earth: A Saga of the Prairie, DigiCat
7. (obsolete, slang, transitive) To execute by hanging.
   • The thief was turned off by the hangman.
   • The fell had not only put its cap on, it was drawn down over its white face as that other white cap, still more terrible to look upon, covers the features of the poor wretch about to be "turned off" on the gallows.1890, James Payn, The Burnt Million, volume 2, page 63
8. (transitive) To raise, unblocking the way and signaling that a train may proceed.

   Antonyms:

   turn on