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单词 off
释义
off1 adverb, preposition, adjectiveoff2 adjectiveoff3 nounoff4 verb
offoff1 /ɒf $ ɒːf/ ●●● S1 W1 adverb, preposition, adjective Examples
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER DICTIONARIES
  • All the lights were off when I got home.
  • Can anyone get this lid off?
  • Carol is off for the whole week.
  • Do you get Christmas Eve off?
  • Get 15% off on all winter coats in the store.
  • I'll get off at the next stop.
  • I'm afraid the wedding's off.
  • I saw him hurrying off to catch his plane.
  • It happened while his wife was off on a business trip.
  • Nancy waved good-bye as she drove off.
  • noises off
  • Polly's wedding was still about six weeks off.
  • Take off your shoes.
  • The nearest town is fifteen kilometres off.
  • The robbers must be a long way off by now.
  • The suspects quickly turned off onto a side road.
  • We need to stop off and get gas soon.
  • We were still several miles off, but you could already see a glow in the sky from the lights of the city.
word sets
WORD SETS
absenteeism, nounarticled clerk, black economy, nounbloodletting, nounblue-collar, adjectivebook-keeper, nounboss, nounbusiness agent, career path, nouncareer structure, nounCFO, Chartered Financial Consultant, nounCIO, co-manager, nouncommercial agent, company car, nouncompany doctor, company officer, competence, nouncompliance officer, co-worker, nouncreative director, curriculum vitae, nounCV, noundeputy chairman, deskill, verbdismiss, verbdowngrade, verbdownsize, verbearn, verbearner, nounemploy, verbemployable, adjectiveemployee, nounemployer, nounemployment agency, nounengage, verbenrolled agent, escrow agent, executive chairman, filing clerk, fill-in, nounfull-time, adjectiveheadhunter, nounhealth and safety, nounhuman resources, nounjob application, job centre, nounjobless, adjectivelabour exchange, nounledger clerk, moonlight, verbnatural wastage, nounnepotism, nounnetworking, nounnine to five, adverbnumber-cruncher, nounoccupational, adjectiveoff, adverboff-duty, adjectiveoperative, nounoutwork, nounoverseer, nounoverstaffed, adjectivepenalty clause, nounpension fund, nounpension plan, nounpersonnel, nounpiecework, nounpositive discrimination, nounpost, nounpreferment, nounproject engineer, qualification, nounqualify, verbquit, verbrecommendation, nounrecruit, verbredeploy, verbredundancy, nounredundant, adjectivereferee, nounreference, nounreinstate, verbresearch manager, resign, verbresignation, nounresume, nounretired, adjectiveretiree, nounretirement, nounself-employed, adjectivesharecropper, nounshift, nounskilled, adjectivetechnical analyst, testimonial, nountime and motion study, nountrainee, nountransfer agent, underemployed, adjectiveundermanned, adjectiveunderstaffed, adjectiveunemployable, adjectiveunemployed, adjectiveunemployment, noununemployment benefit, noununskilled, adjectivevacancy, nounvacant, adjectivewhite-collar, adjectiveworkday, nounwork experience, nounworkforce, nounworking papers, nounworkweek, noun
Collocations
COLLOCATIONS FROM THE ENTRY
 ‘Going to work today, mum?’ ‘No. It’s my day off today.’
 The school’s fairly well off for books these days.
 How are you off for sports equipment (=do you have enough?)?
British English I used to enjoy tennis, but I’ve gone off it a bit now. She seems to have gone off Mark since he’s grown a beard.
 Do you think the meat’s gone off?
 Guess again. You’re way off (=very far from being correct).
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
(=stop giving aid)· The US has threatened to cut off aid to the region.· Conditons deteriorated further as western aid was withdrawn.
(=make it start ringing)· A window blew open, setting off the alarm.
(also an alarm sounds formal)· The thieves fled when an alarm went off.
· I entered the shop and switched off the alarm.
(=end it)· The Athenians broke off the alliance with Sparta and made alliances with Argos and Thessaly.
 Do me a favour and get off my back!
· The blow was hard enough to knock him off balance.
 Simpson came off the bench to play in midfield.
(=used to give advice or an opinion) He’d be better off starting with something simpler.
· I got on my bicycle and cycled over to Rob’s house.
· He got off his bike and walked with her for a while.
· Forty people were injured when the bomb exploded.· A 200 pound bomb went off in the car park.
(also detonate a bomb formal) (=make a bomb explode)· The area was cleared and the police safely detonated the bomb.
 She was booed off stage (=they shouted ‘boo’ until she left the stage).
· In the end she decided to break their engagement.
 They are getting browned off by the situation.
 She gave him the brush-off.
 I tried to be friendly but I just got the brush-off.
(=hits something and moves away from it again)· The bullet ricocheted off a wall.
· Several more passengers got on the bus.
· A button has come off my skirt.
(=use up the calories you have eaten)· Even walking will help you to burn up calories.
· He opened the door, took off his cap, and threw it on a hook.
· The police car drove off at top speed.
(=starts to be successful)· His career took off and he started making a lot of money.
 I turned on the heater in the hall to take the chill off the house (=to heat it slightly).
(=used to tell someone angrily to go away)
(=rings at a particular time)· What time do you want the alarm clock to go off tomorrow?
· She took off her clothes and slipped into bed.
· A group of tourists were getting on the coach.
· She took off her coat and went into the kitchen.
 The performance on the first night came off pretty well.
 His family were comfortably off (=fairly rich).
· She beat off competition from dozens of other candidates to get the job.
(=stop using a computer system that requires a password)
· Always switch off your computer at the end of the day.
(=cause it)· The new rules are likely to spark more controversy.
 He was taken off the critical list and is now in a stable condition.
(=the date etc when you stop doing something) The cut-off date for registration is July 2.
 I’m taking a few days off before the wedding.
(=pay the money back)· The first thing I'm going to do is pay off my debts.
(=say officially that it does not have to be paid)· The bank finally agreed to write off the debt.
(=far away from where you are, and exciting)· The company arranges tours to exotic destinations such as Nepal.
(=write asking for information)· Why don't you send for details of the course?
· Wash the dirt off those boots before you come in.
 He felt himself drifting off to sleep.
(=stop taking drugs permanently)· It was years before I was able to come off drugs.
(=very easy)
(=gradually stops)· The effect of the anaesthetic was beginning to wear off.
(=stop the supply of electricity)· You risk having your electricity cut off if you fail to pay the bill.
informal (=send it quickly, especially because you are angry about something)· I fired off an email to the hotel, saying how disgusted I was with their level of service.
(=stop employing them because there is no work for them to do)· Unions fear that many part-time employees will be laid off.
(=suddenly end it)· Were you surprised when Toni broke off your engagement?
· Maggie pulled over and switched off the engine.
(=it gradually becomes less)· The initial excitement of my new job was starting to wear off.
· Take the next exit, junction 15.
(also embark on an expedition formal) (=leave at the start of an expedition)· Trent set off on an expedition to collect plants with fellow botanical students.
(=cause an explosion)· Investigators believe a fuel leak may have triggered the explosion.
(=close to being correct) I guessed it would cost $100 and it was $110, so I was not far out.
 visitors from a far-off land far-off galaxies
 We were in the middle of an exam when the fire alarm went off.
 Someone set off the fire alarm.
 Jeff and David were in the back yard setting off fireworks.
 Red warning lights flashed on and off (=shone for a short time and then stopped shining).
· She’d just got off a flight from Buenos Aires.
 The appeal has got off to a flying start, with over £200,000 raised in the first week.
British English (=not want to eat)· The baby is off his food.
British English (=to stop wanting to eat)· Since becoming ill, he has gone off his food.
(=succeeds)· She gave up a career in law to become an actor, but the gamble has paid off.
British English (=played to decide the winner after a previous game ended with both teams having equal points)
 What time do you get off work?
 I went to bed but couldn’t get off to sleep.
· Elsie took off her glasses and rubbed her eyes.
 The injury to Keane took the gloss off Manchester United’s victory.
· Mr Brownlow took off his gloves.
 I’d just gone off to sleep when the phone rang.
 a hands-off style of management
 The government has a hands-off approach to the industry.
· We turn the heating off before bed.
· The heating goes off automatically when the room is warm enough.
 She stormed out in a huff.
· I scraped the ice off the car windscreen.
(=discuss each other’s ideas and think of good new ones)· Our regular meetings are opportunities to fire ideas off each other.
(=cause it to happen suddenly)· It is claimed that the police provoked the incident.
(also embark on a journey formal) (=start a long journey)· Before setting off on a journey, look at maps and guidebooks.
 I think it might kick off in here with all these football fans around.
 Do you want to knock off early today?
 We usually knock off work at about twelve on Saturday.
· One of the builders fell off a ladder and broke his leg.
· He switched off the lamp beside the bed.
(=laugh a lot)· The audience laughed its head off all the way through.
(=continue something that has stopped for a short time) Barry took up the story where Justine had left off.
(=allow someone to escape punishment or criticism) He’d decided to make Sandra wait before letting her off the hook.
(=give someone a less serious punishment than they deserve) I think young criminals are let off far too lightly.
 I wished he would just get off the line.
 Most people in the countryside live off the land (=live by growing or finding their own food).
 Knowing he was safe was a load off my mind (=I felt less worried).
(=give back the money you borrowed, usually over a period of time)· You can repay the loan early without a penalty.
· Is the tape machine switched off?
(also remove make-up formal)· Take off eye make-up gently, using a cotton ball.
· I can’t get this dirty mark to come out.
(=it starts)· The match kicks off at 3.30 pm.
(=stop taking a medication)· Coming off the medication made him more aggressive.
 Want a game? It might take your mind off things.
 when Hubbard shuffled off this mortal coil (=died)
(=finish paying all the money you owe)· They paid off their mortgage five years early.
· We got on the motorway near Watford.
(=leave the motorway)· We forgot to turn off the motorway and ended up in London.
(=take off a baby's nappy)· Come on, let's take this dirty nappy off.
(=stop them)· The two companies have broken off negotiations on the deal.
(=something stops seeming new and interesting)· Once the novelty had worn off he didn't play with his train set much.
 The sudden movement of the ship knocked them both off balance.
 Telephone charges are lower during off-peak periods.
 an off-road vehicle
 It’s yours for a one-off payment of only £200.
(=be very noticeable)· One mistake jumped off the page.
(=take most of the paint off a surface using a tool)· Scrape off any loose or flaking paint and rub the surface with sandpaper.
· The bus stopped and half the passengers got off.
(=it cannot be used because it is not connected or is already being used)· On Friday nights we just take the phone off the hook and relax.
 We’ll meet again in the morning and we can pick up where we left off.
 You get really pissed off applying for jobs all the time.
(=goes into the air)· The flight attendants served drinks shortly after the plane took off.
· Would he ever see her again after they got off the plane?
 The two musicians played off each other in a piece of inspired improvisation.
 a young singer who was tragically cut off in her prime (=died while she was in her prime)
(=cause them)· The arrests sparked off violent street protests.
(also emit radiation formal) (=produce it)· The lamps emit ultra-violet radiation.
· You can turn the radio off, darling, we're not listening to it.
(=it starts to rain less)· The rain should ease off in a minute.
 They missed the off-ramp to Manhattan.
· After the incident, Croatia broke off all relations with Serbia.
· She was very upset when I ended the relationship.
(=happening sometimes and not at other times)· Their on–off relationship seemed to have come to an end two years ago.
 He goes off on a riff about the problems of being middle-aged.
 I could tell right off that something was wrong.
American English (=immediately, without having to think carefully) Kay answered right off the bat.
(=make it start)· The incident sparked off a riot which lasted for three days.
 I’ve been rushed off my feet (=extremely busy) all day.
informal (=scare someone very much)
(=scream a lot)· At least the idiot wasn’t panicking and screaming his head off.
· They called off the search when it got dark.
(=lose a game or competition, or not be as successful as someone else)
 The department gave Tom a send-off he won’t forget!
· They took off their shoes in the hallway.
(=put them on or take them off quickly or gently)· She slipped off her shoes and curled her feet up under her on the sofa.
(=take them off by moving your legs)· Maria kicked off her shoes and sat down.
 The robbers were armed with sawn-off shotguns (=ones that have been made shorter, so the balls go in different directions).
British English, be out sick American English (=be away from work or school because you are ill)· Half my staff were off sick.
 For the last month, she has been signed off sick from work.
(=start sleeping, especially without meaning to)· She’d drifted off to sleep on the sofa.
(=produce a smell)· Rubber gives off a strong smell when it is burned.
· My feet got so hot and sweaty I took my trainers and socks off.
· I came off stage last night and just collapsed in a heap.
(=leave the stage, especially before you should)· The pianist walked off the stage after playing only a few notes.
· On your first day at work, you want to get off to a good start.
 She brought some fruit on the journey to stave off hunger.
(=decide not to continue with it)· The strike was called off two days later.
(=not talk about it)· I knew he was trying to avoid the subject of drugs.· She hoped that Anna would keep off the subject of Luke for the next few hours.
(=make them talk about something else)· It was difficult to get him off the subject of cars.
· I couldn’t find the on-off switch.
 Mimi became jealous when Jack’s career started taking off.
 I rang my boss and arranged to take some time off.
 Dad took the day off to come with me.
· I forgot to turn the tap off.
· I switched off the television and went to bed.
(=become trapped as the sea rises)· Two anglers had to be rescued after getting cut off by the tide.
· He got off the train at Flushing.
 Mark turned off the highway and into Provincetown.
(=disappear so that no sign remains) The youngster vanished without a trace one day and has never been found.
 The plane veered off course.
(=win when it is difficult)· Martin pulled off a surprise victory in the semi-final.
(=becomes quieter until you cannot hear it)· ‘It's just that … ’, his voice trailed away uncertainly.
(=go for a walk so that your stomach feels less full)
(=turn a tap to stop water coming out of pipes or to let it come out)· Turn the water off while you're brushing your teeth.
(=become or stay thinner)· I changed my eating habits so I’d keep the weight off.
 Many pensioners are less well-off (=have less money) than they used to be.
(=win when it is difficult to win)· The side has pulled off two excellent wins in the past couple of weeks.
 Brenda jumped in the car and zoomed off.
COLLOCATIONS FROM THE CORPUSVERB
· You may at least force the opponent to back off, since he will have more to lose than you.· All at once, the children start to back off.· I've never known you back off from anything or anybody.· They then backed off from a confrontation but stopped talking.· Every time they got near him, he backed off, ecstatic with excitement, tail wagging furiously.· The crowd surged around him, and the police backed off.· Hitch told him to back off, then moved across.· The agents backed off, setting up an armed perimeter around the house.
· The old man's left leg had been blown off in the war.· At this point, you will let out a scream suggesting that some one has just blown off your toe with a. 45.· Once we had our head blown off.· And my poor grandfather comes over and gets blown off by his older brother.· The clay dries and cracks in the sun, and the top layers are blown off as dust.· Another night, though, several roof shingles blew off.· A bouncing grenade blew off his right arm.· Mondesi flatly blew off all media, uncharacteristic for him.
· He bounced off the side, then rolled into a ditch.· From them he receives counsel and bounces off ideas.· Ian Durrant told me that later that the ball had bounced off a sprinkler head.· Before I could grasp what was happening, I had bounced off the wall and was crumpling on to the floor in pain.· The light bounced off the river and dazzled her.· Light bouncing off those disturbed surfaces then project animated patterns on the gallery walls.· The attacking vehicle bounced off its target and hit Curtis's car.· He found places where the waves bounced off the boundary and then returned to the surface near a large bank of seismographs.
· They come down on to the ground and immediately their wings break off close to the thorax.· The smoke was broken off the cabin chimney where she had dropped it while setting the table eighteen years ago.· If they break off their constant peregrinations, their voice seizes up and they lose their memory.· Squeeze out a star, pull the bag slightly sideways to pull the star into a tail, and break off.· Injection pipettes are made in exactly the same way as holding pipettes except that they are broken off at a smaller internal diameter.· Evidently that had been broken off very soon after she arrived on her first station.· However, negotiations were broken off owing to the vehement opposition of anti-abortion Republicans, supported by Sununu.· But there is nobody below decks; the engine-room was never installed, and the rudder broke off centuries ago.
· Connahs Quay were angry over Halkyn's decision to call off their match at Pant Newydd an hour before the scheduled start.· Finally, a reason to vote for Bob Dole: He will call off the war on drugs.· The 13 Buddhist hill tribes called off their insurgency three years ago, and foreigners no longer need a permit to visit.· Three days later, Microsoft called off the merger.· Among half a dozen debt restructurings called off last year were those of Southland and Insilco.· Once the search team was called off, Aldegonda joined the Benedictine order.· His client promptly called off the deal.· Throughout the property market, deals that had been nearly completed were called off.
· Suddenly, it was three years later and he was being carried off an Army Medical Corps Hercules air transport.· How long is it since my own thoughts were carried off in such a way?· As for clothes, fashion consultant Barbara Thomas decided Norma had the poise and presence to carry off a sophisticated designer label.· He had lunched with the Wellands, hoping afterward to carry off May for a walk iii the Park.· Of our initial 20 rather withered carnations, 18 were carried off into the distance by bewildered or gracious lasses.· That they will never capture or carry off from the settlements white women or children.· Elwood was carried off after a perfectly legitimate but massive hit delivered by the Springbok centre.· Several of the dead sheep were carried off to the state capital of Villahermosa 30 miles away for examination.
· You then knit one or two rows and cast off.· Endued with evenness of mind, one casts off in this very life both good deeds and evil deeds.· Knit 1 row and cast off in same manner.· Guests were encouraged to cast off their inhibitions.· One who would speak your name and seeks to know the woman in you! Cast off the glooms.· Women are casting off minimalism, starting at the accessory level.· The fresh pupa, having cast off its pliable caterpillar skin, had hardened and become black-brown.
· Within a dozen yards, I came to a set of iron gates closing off the steps east of the high altar.· Then I closed off my Albany life with four phone calls and caught the ten thirty train to New York.· Some parts of the house had been closed off, for economic reasons, she was told.· He said law enforcement authorities had closed off a five-mile area around the crash site.· While the woods have been closed off, all but the most used paths have healed over.· Most of the building is closed off, under repair, with ropes cordoning off huge sections.· I shall leave them inert, even if that closes off the currents of the future.· In that area, about 20 feet of the 32-foot-wide, two-lane roadway are closed off.
· Legend has it that once Kendo Nagasaki's mask did come off.· To many, his biting sense of humor comes off as mean-spirited rather than funny.· The wheels really have come off.· Jose Lima is coming off a horrendous season.· While always lovely to look at, it comes off bewilderingly off-kilter.· His network just came off its most successful sweeps performance among 18-to 49-year-olds since becoming a seven-night network.· She came off the slope at an uncontrollable pace that took her across the clearing and into the trees.· The company is coming off a disappointing quarter and is revamping its workstations.
· Reports on Aug. 19 from Budapest radio spoke of the city surrounded by troops, with radio and television headquarters cut off.· We cut off the kernels from the cobs, blanched them, and then put them away to save for corn chowder.· Worst hit were the Devon seaside towns of Sidmouth and Exmouth, which were cut off for several hours on Wednesday.· Neither my husband nor I want our daughter to be as emotionally unaware and cut off as most men are.· We were once more cut off from reality in our underground prison.· Catalonia was cut off from the rest of the Republic by then and slowly being strangled to death.· Lightning from the storm had cut off the electricity and the cell was illuminated by a bronze dish filled with flickering candles.· If it snowed, as was threatened, there was every possibility that Whitely would be cut off.
· By midnight, much of the cast had drifted off to bed in twos and threes.· Philip drifts off to some friends to say good-bye.· I drifted off into non-league and he went on to big things at West Ham.· Basically people curled up wherever they found themselves and drifted off.· When he drifted off to sleep at last Henry's cheeks were quite pink with shame.· He would drift off to sleep again, only to wake and look at the clock.· Large as icebergs they drifted off to the north carrying the remaining followers of the Witch King.· She takes the pin from me, secures it back on her lapel, and drifts off.
· In this case, it is the formation of the rock through volcanic activity, which drives off any argon formerly present.· Hercules slew Diomedes first and then drove off the mares unopposed.· Before driving off, they threatened to kill his wife and daughter if he did not wait before getting help.· Dilip drove off honking his horn and threatening to run down those who were slow to get out of his way.· She was last seen being driven off in the passenger seat of a red hatchback.· Then I drove off, with my clothes and without further explanation, to my parents' house.· He drove off the lot, up Fox the wrong way so he could park on Prospect.
· Graham Hunsley, mitigating, said Twohig dropped off food to save a calf which would otherwise have been slaughtered.· Singer wins 20 but drops off to seven and seven for the Angels.· It was a happy debut for the latest model to drop off the fast-bowling conveyor belt.· She shook her head, cleared the table, dropping off stuff behind the counter, talking some to her father.· I fell asleep .... cackle cackle - I dropped off.· Have yourself dropped off in your high heels in front of the restaurant.· And when had Therese dropped off?
· A woman had fallen off and broken her pelvis.· One of the steps are about to fall off.· If she fell off would she be trampled?· Keep the napkin square on your lap or it will fall off, and you may not drop anything on the floor.· A man once fell off the dock, with only one hand reaching above the surface.· Orders slowed, causing sales to fall off dramatically.· It wasn't fully dressed; many of its cucumber scales had fallen off, revealing pink flesh underneath.· If they fall off which one will fall off first?
· By demonstrating effective self-regulation the profession could fend off policing by others.· Zoom around the galaxy fending off Tie Fighters.· Hector fending off a MacIan sword from him.· Two or three bar girls arrived while we were having our meal, and had to be fended off.· And Blundell put on a great performance, fending off the Mercedes until both were caught by Schumacher.· Hanson was fended off, and sold his stake a year later, but the episode had unleashed shock waves.· She was having enough trouble fending off his considerable charms.· Here too the Party could fend off opposition by a policy of divide and rule.
· The fight to control the business has been deadly, as Akundzadeh has had continually fight off rival contenders.· People with normal, healthy immune systems generally can fight off enterococcus without drugs, and might not even feel sick.· The Internet is no substitute for real life but it's great for fighting off boredom.· Lettie purposely lingered behind Patrice, fighting off her natural inclination to simply ignore the woman and brush past her.· There crawled into my mind one nasty little question that I'd been fighting off till now.· He was able to fight off the others and get away with the girdle.· Improved diet would have reduced death rates primarily because well fed people are better able to fight off infectious disease.· The athlete then fights off enemies with sword and pistol.
· This was certainly more dramatic than the more publicized event that finished off the dinosaurs.· The steak-and-chicken dinner finishes off with homemade peach cobbler and live entertainment.· Go on, tell me about how you finished off then.· At ten-thirty he finished off the vodka and switched to rum.· Three o'clock - I just finish off everything that I did not have time to do.· The pension is recently built, but is finished off in the traditional style.· But the pace proved too hot and Hazell finished off the match with a service run from 10-9.
· Outside the office, takes every opportunity to fly off to warm exotic climates for her hobby of snorkelling.· If we were seriously attacked, all the ships would be flown off somewhere.· The first Phoenix King made no response, merely climbed on to the back of Indraugnir and flew off into the dreadful night.· And Janir had flown off to see her with such confidence, with such hope and trust.· Then it flies off, with characteristic bounding flight, across a wheat field and into a wood.· Satisfied with our answers the plane flew off.· Instead of flying off, it settled at my feet.· It flies out of my hands and shatters on the parquet floor; the pieces fly off in a thousand directions.
· There is a difference between a project which never gets off the ground and one which suddenly goes bad.· They should get off their backsides and let us see what they intend to do about it.· We got to get off this here hill.· But it has taken the project some time to get off the ground.· Yet diesel gets off easily when it comes to pollution controls.· Gebhardt said he saw no suspects when he got off the phone and discovered the items missing and the door ajar.
· One day they went off their food and the two Plecostomus in with them died.· Go off to the States to a room above a garage?· I had hit the floor before the machine gun went off.· Imagine All My Children wrapping up all the loose ends and going off the air.· The starter called us to our marks, we got set, the gun went off and I dawdled on the blocks.· Suppose another Lulu turned up in Reno, just after the divorce, and Mark went off with her?· This is a fine time for Mum to go off her chump, he said to himself as he began his walk.· They could go off to Texas and California.
· Max heads off to the door.· Once Evan began reading them, we headed off to the library with him to check out half the series.· Before departing, we ate and then headed off to the Crucible Theatre for the evening.· Any hope of heading off with the Kaika was defunct.· But for some of those employees heading off down the road, their day's work is barely half over.· Kissinger made one last attempt to head off the Jackson-Vanik amendment.· Taking my leave, I headed off for the developing tanks at my studio.· The institutional investors that charged into junk bonds in the 1980s have now headed off at a gallop in the opposite direction.
· Let the summer skies hold off, for the moment.· Sometimes I can hold off until just before I hear my flight back to Hartford, Conn., being called.· Parrella held off a spirited fightback from 23-year-old McMahon to win 21-19.· DiGenova said Starr may ask the jurors to hold off or limit their questioning.· But Mr Walesa will not hold off for ever.· Her office has directed department heads to evaluate expenses and hold off spending whenever possible.· I won't have to understand what has occurred if I hold off from consciously realizing that it has happened.· For a while an old friend of the Mormons, Thomas L.. Kane, mediated and held off an impatient government.
· I jumped off and ran towards her and ... she backed away.· He jumped off slam into the arms of a Municipal.· Dickie jumped off the pontoon into the flat-bottomed boat moored alongside, and lifted Oliver down.· Carbon paper executives probably jumped off buildings when they learned about Xerox copiers.· Then, just as suddenly, she jumped off him.· I jumped off the brass bed and ran down the path toward the house.· She jumped off and tried again - same effect.· But just then McMurphy jumped off his bed and went to rustling through his nightstand, and I hushed.
· While Oliver was out of the room she abandoned her chair for the couch, kicked off her shoes and curled up.· Shoes would be kicked off beneath the desks and lie untidily askew.· We can also kick off another session of questions about the job White is doing.· Edward watched as I kicked off my shoes and socks, unbuckled my jeans and let them fall.· The chief inspector kicked off her shoes and poured a slug of single malt whisky.· Gazza moved out to the villa in July to acclimatise before the football season kicked off.· The talk kicked off our 1992-3 season.
· He gave me to understand that the bamboo beetle would soon be killed off by the sea air.· The recession has cut the number of Thames's commercial customers and has virtually killed off profits from selling redundant properties.· In his newspaper publishing career, Munsey succeeded in killing off eight or more newspapers.· He claims his recovery plan kills off Labour claims that he is doing nothing to combat unemployment.· You're only a doctor, you've only been killing off your patients, why should it matter?· He believed that abrupt changes on the earth's surface were responsible for killing off all the species over a wide area.· Then came elm disease, followed by smartly by the drought of 1976, which killed off many of the beeches.
· Here the X-rays knock off chlorine atoms one after another until there are only VOC-like compounds left, which are finally destroyed.· My scuffed Buster Browns, now too small for my growing feet, had been knocked off.· Ten black men took a sledge-hammer to the work, and knocked off a large part of his face.· Everyone else appeared to have some sort of credit card that knocked off up to 25 percent.· Last week's leaders Tynemouth were knocked off their pedestal losing their first game of the season.· What do you do with an evil one, who is knocking off the neighbors?· The worst thing was seeing the Sikhs have their turbans knocked off, and their beards cut with bayonets.· I saw five dead rebels in a row, with their heads knocked off by a round shot.
· The weak domestic manufacturing sector is reeling too: 150 factories closed last year, laying off 30,000 workers.· Adams was laid off his job at Pac Bell last August.· Certainly, an emergency on the first flight after a long lay off provides the potential for an incident.· But there was a budget cut after a year, and I was laid off.· For instance, millions have been laid off in the construction industry.· The disenchantment affects all workers, even before they are ever laid off.· About 30, 000 workers were laid off in Illinois last year.· An estimated 3 million workers have been laid off be-tween 1989 and 1995 as corporate profits have soared.
· Newman spotted the track leading off to the right and swung away from the main road.· Ramirez led off, and Mussina needed 13 pitches to strike him out.· So do I. I slither down the muddy steps leading off the Mudchute embankment.· The other came after his walk to lead off the ninth with the score tied at seven.· On the first floor, leading off a covered balcony, were the chambers of the fellows and scholars.· Florida scored its final two runs in the third after Sheffield led off with a high drive to deep right-center.· A long corridor ran down the length of the building with doors leading off on both sides.· Bruins coach Steve Kasper led off.
· Then if you drop out, you can go back and pick up where you left off.· She decided to return east and resume her studies at Columbiato pick up her life where she had left off.· This morning she had fought a battle with herself and had left off the concealing shirt.· I could pick up where I had left off.· She and Johnny could not simply pick up where they had left off.· Her mother left off swinging her feet and being girlish.· I would abjure my art then and there, leave off cursing, leave off binding fast and loose with spells.· He left off patting Prince and came and sat down on a bale of hay, not looking at me.
· Not for the first time this year, Seles had been let off with a mere slap on the wrist.· He had just been letting off a little steam.· Fortunately, his employer was lenient and he was let off with a caution.· Parents were let off the hook.· They said the protesters let off stink bombs and covered four players with eggs and flour.· Lousy schools and dysfunctional teachers were let off the hook.· He wasn't even let off the hook when it was all over.· Or did the high turnout suggest a letting off of steam after three intense years of flood recovery?
· Destination Sarajevo. Lift off for Operation Cheshire.· The master continued to press with his finger, and presently I felt my feet lift off the ground.· The pair of rotating arms can be easily lifted off, when the unit becomes a standard fountain.· Many of those watching believed the plane was too heavy to ever lift off, according to Times reporter Ryan.· At the trial the mother gave evidence that when the forceps were applied she was lifted off the bed.· For a moment, Miguel thought the car was going to lift off into the sky with wings flapping.· He lifts off the frying pan and replaces it with a saucepan of water.· It was like a huge weight was lifted off my shoulders.
· But as ever those with a bit of fat to live off make it through, those with none don't.· One hundred people living off a football field-size truck farm!· Then business diminished, and the partners persuaded Stratford to live off his Prescott estate in Gloucestershire.· He would know that smell anywhere, having lived off that particular soup during his early years in the priesthood.· Bush Tucker Man used to live off the land and, indeed, anything that ran fractionally slower than he did.· For the rest, the archipelago could and did live off its own resources.· More than 30,000 people live off coal around here.· The structures provide a measure of vertical relief sought by deep-sea invertebrates that make their living off particles in the water column.
· Bobbie glared at him, took Rose's arm and they moved off together.· Some one was yelling at a horse, asking it to move off his foot.· We moved off in the direction of the crossroads, the scene of yesterday's action.· Where the line of stones breaks, lines of energy could be detected moving off at a tangent.· Clayt tugged at the throttle and the water in back boiled and the boat moved off below them.· He would stand and just look at his trusted trainer, not moving off as directed.· We watched him for another 10 minutes before he moved off into the woods where we could no longer see him.
· It got me started on the property ladder and it has paid off for me.· A compromise of sorts was reached: it was said that he was paid off with ten thousand dollars.· They say they were left financially strapped or forced to forfeit their homes to pay off the debts.· Officials said Wednesday that approach had paid off.· He had thus paid off the princes and the pope.· Not until first tranche holders were entirely paid off did second tranche investors receive any prepayments.· Wilson responds that this proves his case: tough justice must be paying off.· The income from the securities can be used only to pay off nuclear debts.
· The enamel has peeled off the taps like so much banana skin, revealing dull, patchy brass.· Another one had had the skin peeled off his bones.· At the top of the aisle, the bridesmaids and groomsmen peeled off to left and right respectively.· Clayt stepped out of the dark and lifted the door shut and peeled off his all-weather gear.· Slowly Ruth peeled off her vest-top and wriggled out of her shorts.· Magic came to midcourt and peeled off his warmups, and the place blew.· Christina went upstairs to her bedroom, peeled off her sticky, crumpled clothes, and jumped into a tepid shower.· You saw the blouses only when she peeled off the top covering as the dancing went on and on.
· I can fully understand him being pissed off.· For all they know, you were furious with her, you hated her, you were pissed off about the drugs.· It's no wonder Hite is pissed off.· Petey, leaning against a post, looked pissed off.· I was pissed off at them leaving me like that because I had hardly any other friends in Leeds.· He was pissed off and cursing.· I saw it pissing off with an apprentice on the way down to the start at Chester.· Everybody was pissed off when I was a kid.
· When the whole side has been removed, pull off the backbone and cut the remaining salmon into pieces.· The entire hood had been pulled off and was lying on the pavement.· The Jaguar slowed down and he pulled off the main highway into a side road.· In one of the passes they pulled off the paved highway and parked out of sight of it, among limestone boulders.· It is quite legal to go out into the countryside, find a hedgehog and pull off its legs one by one.· He pulled off the paper and there they were.· Still swearing under his breath, Dexter pulled off the cover from the bottom of the boiler and relit the pilot light.· She pulled off her hat, she made herself at home.
· It is a time when people, putting off the reality of Monday morning, don't want to be disturbed.· The timetable for broader and deeper unification has been put off once more.· All of us have a tendency to put off the difficult tasks or those we dislike.· I was put off by the old woman.· Don't be put off, but we reckon you should think pink!· Many practitioners know this, and may be put off from benefiting from the undoubted if limited strengths of functional assessment.· Don't be put off by the cover but do read! - this is a book for all of us.· I knew I did - and put off half my future for her.
· What about the indigenous artists who are ripped off by these greedy con merchants?· They wanted to watch the films before explaining how Seattle ripped off 554 yards of offense.· With their bare hands, they fought to save the man who had an ear ripped off in the attack.· Cabrera, 27, started ripping off her clothes and tried to rape her, she and Hernandez testified later.· He then ripped off his tie.· The whimpering old man suddenly went crazy, ripping off a hunk of the bun and cramming it into his mouth.· Everything went from his mind, only the sense to rip off his mask before the vomit came.· The door had been forced open and partially ripped off its hinges, and it banged monotonously against the frame.
· It is best to joint the arms and the uprights before any rounding off takes place.· Once Muzzy Izzet had rounded off a neatly worked equaliser the Second Division side might have been expected to keel over.· But it was Eusebius who rounded off these hints into an image which came to dominate fourth-century minds.· While the adults sat about and caught up with the local gossip, the children would round off the day with sports.· He rounded off the scoring with a simple fourth after rounding goalkeeper Thomas Ravelli.· Anxious to round off his story soas to be ready for whatever Holmes may propose, Ward heads for the library.· Her wish was granted and her supersonic trip was rounded off with a stay in the famous Waldorf Astoria Hotel.· An intermission was filled with several games of bingo and the day was rounded off with cream tea.
· There were some heart-stopping moments in the Town goalmouth, but they survived and nearly ran off with a win.· He ran off, shouting his news.· His family had land, but as the forests were cleared, the rain ran off and no longer watered the earth.· He eventually panicked and ran off as the boy screamed for help.· She ran off screaming and hopping down the yard.· Our best plan was to kill the pirates one by one until the rest ran off or sailed away in the ship.· She ran off with breakfast for her respectable middle-class family.· The other man ran off but police officers caught him.
· I rushed off with my barrel-bag to the Ladies.· In the daytime Mr Garner would rush off alone to repair a meat locker or an ice cream freezer.· Well, I must rush off.· Only one traditional element was missing: Don and I did not rush off afterward in a hail of rice.· We're rushed off of our feet.· Everybody tells you half of something, and then rushes off to tell something else, or to hear the last news.· We hug and I rush off.· Gill granted the postponement, then everybody rushed off to find out what the South Side was up to.
· The turbine is sealed off behind a tasteful stained wood casing with leaded windows lit from behind.· He ordered the water district Tuesday to seal off the wells.· Soon afterwards the embassy in Prague was sealed off unilaterally by Czechoslovak police.· Once inside, buildings are environmentally sealed off from our much-touted mild climate.· The police had sealed off only part of the city centre while the bomb squad investigated.· We know for a fact that the area was sealed off and that army and rescue services were called to the scene.· The plant will be effectively sealed off from the world apart from periodic inspection and monitoring visits by skilled staff.· The railway station was evacuated and busy commuter roads sealed off.
· Now they are to be scrapped and sold off as scrap metal.· Selman has sold off two-thirds of his herd so far.· They sell off things, you know.· Parts of companies outside the core business will be sold off or closed.· But the information technology division is to be sold off.· He purchased Western Union through a bankruptcycourt reorganization, selling off its well-known money-transfer business.· Meanwhile many public assets were sold off cheaply, often to foreign firms.· These are companies whose total stock value is below what the company could get if it simply sold off its assets.
· Damiano Tommasi paid for it minutes later when he was sent off for felling Robbie Fowler.· Nevertheless, done, packed up, sent off, the contract satisfied, the money assured.· Ten-goal McCarthy was sent off against Exeter City last month.· Make a copy for yourself before sending off the original.· Here we go, I thought, as I sent off the entire request to the company.· But in his next match he was sent off for twice attacking the goalie.· You thank them, make a few changes, and send off the document.
· Social security benefits will be set off against your loss; the relevant rules are contained in detailed regulations.· Both demolition projects set off bitter debates.· We repair to the kitchen and blithely set off the burglar alarm searching for the cat to cuddle.· Nearly all the accidents in Darlington occurred at junctions, when cyclists were waiting to set off or just starting to pedal.· She set off towards the junction to the left.· He set off on a long rambling account of something that had happened in the bar that afternoon.· She set off to walk a mile to the mountain cable car on Wednesday.
· We have never quite shaken off its effects.· Mom shook off my help and tried the knapsack once again.· They may have been feeling ill for some time, and trying to shake off their fears as well as their symptoms.· Dredge plantain slices in seasoned flour and shake off excess.· It took her several minutes to shake off the resulting stupefaction.· I went on along Fleet Street, but could not shake off the idea.· He walked away quickly, trying to shake off the unnerving effect of the encounter.· The betting industry needs to shake off its dowdy appearance and attract customers who will still be customers in the 21st century.
· Perhaps it was because the glamorous life was too far away to show off their child to friends and relatives.· Rabbit could show off by riding the waves with a women on his shoulders.· Wear these striking cropped trousers with strappy kitten-heeled shoes to show off your legs to best effect.· Men fight, compete, love, show off, and hunt all over the world.· Sometimes its funny, sometimes its poignant, sometimes it's just an excuse to show off a fine singing voice.· David Alan Miller slicks back his hair and dons a black leather vest and sleeveless shirt to show off his biceps.· Then one day I discovered that he was borrowing them to show off at his dinners and returning them the next morning.· Winter Walk threads evergreens, and Springtime Path shows off the wildflowers blooming in that season.
· He shrugs off calls to slow down and won't stop working to go to the toilet.· The former president shrugged off reporters' reminders of the 1988 race Wednesday, saying he and Dole cultivated a strong friendship.· Vauxhall has shrugged off the difficulties dogging other car manufacturers to bring the massive investment to its plant at Ellesmere Port.· She wanted to shrug off his firm, proprietorial grasp but managed to resist.· He shrugs off his methamphetamine use during the summer.· But Wall Street shrugged off fears of a further sell-off as leading stock markets rebounded strongly on Monday.· I quit cold turkey some 25 years ago, but the specialists simply shrug off this kind of information.
· Worse, the beam shut off while I was still four-metres from the ground.· Such a move would likely be shut off, though, by a motion from Armey to adjourn.· It is secluded but not shut off.· Then, together, the proteins travel back into the nucleus and shut off the very machinery necessary for making more protein.· But the idea was rejected, because it would have shut off supplies to the refugees.· The story tells that when Jack awakes, his room is partly dark, the beanstalk shutting off the light.· Sliding the on/off plate back to on triggers the heating element and also shuts off the water inlet, preventing drips.· And the great Tretyakov art gallery may have its utilities shut off for nonpayment of bills.
· Trish Johnson had a closing 70 to sign off at five under, while Sue Strudwick finished on the same mark.· The drug regulators, however, asked for more information on its manufacturing and labeling before finally signing off on the drug.· For the last time, Oofy is signing off.· Question: How difficult was it for you, personally, to sign off on this deal?· Well, I shall sign off now.· Redstone had signed off on the plan to make more movies, but he later came to see the strategy as flawed.· Eventually the specification will be completed and signed off by the user department.· How could you not sign off on that?
· To peel, cover with boiling water, let stand 2 to 3 minutes, then drain and slip off outer skin.· The last ice was slipping off the rocks.· Norton seconds held Sunderland to 3-3, so the Wearsiders slipped off the top spot.· The tanker slipped off the road, rolled over and landed on its side in a 20-foot-deep ravine.· The vultures eat greedily, fighting over scraps, slipping off the rock in their haste to consume.· He slipped off his black overcoat before stepping forward to recite the oath of office.· Buying a size larger just because the shoes feel too tight only means a narrow shoe that slips off!· Your controls can slip off, or you could stall the plane.
· While the underlying cause of the riots was multi-faceted deprivation some of the incidents were sparked off by police action.· An incautious word, I felt, could spark off resentment.· He then sparked off a row by suggesting that floating voters should stay in bed on polling day.· This idea sparked off a debate that still continues.· This depleted the famine areas further, and sparked off new hatred amongst the peasants.· Unofficial reports said that the incident might have been sparked off by a dispute over permission to build a mosque.· Most new users remark on this-and the fact that email often seems to spark off a surprising intimacy.· He disconcerted her, baffled and enraged her, sparked off her fighting spirit.
· A pair, weaving between each other like a dancer's hands, spin off into the indigo shadows.· JvNCNet spun off from Princeton University Network.· She would spin off, like a Texan tornado, and establish her centre of gravity in paradise!· Praxair was the Linde industrial gas division of Union Carbide Corp. before it was spun off to shareholders in 1992.· In April 1991, they spun off this division into a separate company named Unix System Laboratories.· Axcelis entered the market July 11, spun off from Eaton Corp., a Cleveland manufacturing company.
· The spark to start off the purges was the assassination of Sergei Kirov, head of the Leningrad organisation.· But I started off as working-class rubbish, so I tend to appreciate anything I get.· I did have one fairly regular customer though, and it was amazing how we started off.· It started off like most Super Bowls start.· You go back into concentrated training in the spring highly motivated, starting off from a new plateau.· Corrigan started off to get him.· We start off back to the pueblo.· I nodded and we started off.
· The two-year subsidy is intended to stave off colliery closures until after the general election.· These were noises to stave off the silence into which misery might seep, noises to throw against the hardness of life.· Mr Karimov knows that he will stand or fall on his ability to stave off economic collapse.· And how many more will the Pentagon sacrifice to stave off further criticism of its gender policies?· Even if the company wins the order, however, it will be too late to stave off 300 redundancies.· The city has been just as quick to stave off potential security problems at its rock-walled transit center.· I kept incredulously ordering more drinks, in a doomed bid to stave off this conclusion.· They are constantly changing their numbers, or going ex-directory to stave off threatening calls.
· But before returning to Bacolod I stop off again at Binalbagan to meet some of Negros's' internal refugees'.· Do you mind if we stop off in the town for a moment while I do a quick bit of shopping?· Up Leggett Avenue, he stopped off at Beck, where Domino sat on the stoop of a beaten blue building.· Before I go to the supermarket, I usually stop off for a drink.· They stopped off at a phone so she could call Rosa.· The trick will be to get some of these passengers to stop off in Tehran.· Well then, stop off at the Thomas Building and see him.
· They wheel you over and they put you in the bath and they start stripping off your bandages which is absolute agony.· Roughly seizing Tarantula, they stripped off his bright clothing and gave it back to Swift-Runner.· Nine old women walked round the circle carrying thin branches with the leaves stripped off.· Rex, unperturbed, quickly stripped off naked to wash himself and his clothes in the deluge of fresh water.· So top up when you can, rather than stripping off old varnish and starting again.· Plums and apples were stripped off, still green and hard, stolen, devoured, digested with pain.· Non-stop swearing, stripping off on the field, making V-signs at the sponsor's daughter.· Soldiers stopped high school girls on the streets, stripped off their clothes and sexually humiliated them.
· We liked its ability to self-diagnose and the scope for switching off the radar if necessary.· This process will repeat indefinitely until the supply is switched off.· Health officers in Macclesfield are to be empowered to go into houses and switch off noisy burglar alarms.· Then he crossed the room and switched off the light.· He switched off the kitchen light on his way out.· Shortly after ten-thirty she switched off her light.· If they switch off and the closed-circuit figures drop, the present heady economics of it all begin to crumble.· The machine was not switched off, but Mr Lavelle died of natural causes, police said.
· The recession may not yet be over but, with repossessions stable, house sales may take off again.· Then he took off his watch and put it in his pocket.· When you die you simply leave your worn-out body behind, and your spirit takes off.· She takes off her shoes and gets into bed.· Abberley takes off his watch and looks at it.· He just takes off his wristwatch.· They take off to the whoops and claps of the support crews.· By the eighteenth century, an economic boom had resulted in an active type of pre-capitalism, ready to take off.
· He tore off the page of notes and thrust it into his pocket.· You could tear off little pieces and light it, and it would burn.· Eric's ego was bruised when the crowd jeered a wayward shot and he tore off his shirt in disgust.· I tore off two of the plastic gloves and tucked them in a pocket.· The perforated slips are then torn off and placed in the pay envelopes of the employees.· Suddenly he tears off a corner of the paper on which Jane is sketching.· Her shots tore off one man's ear and wounded another man in the buttocks as he fled from the pub.· Unable to master the lid lock, she tears off the pull-tab.
· The candles fluttered light on to the silver, which threw off distorted images of the faces round the table.· One should not be thrown off by an observation that some scholars support community service but without much dedication to it.· After a while, to Robbie's relief, Fen threw off his knapsack, suggesting they stop and eat their sandwiches.· He too leapt from the bed, throwing off his covers.· The City has been quite good at throwing off old habits, less good at mastering new disciplines.· Suddenly the brakes grab and the car is thrown off the road.· I had been thrown off the cricket team at school for making daisy chains on the boundary.· These hopeless end-of-the-line visits with my mother made me wish I had not thrown off my own past so carelessly.
· The sentences are less likely to run out of puff in mid-stream and trail off into inaudibility.· We trailed off into the canyons, and pitched tents under the conifers.· Whatever he was saying, the words trailed off as Mr McCrindle keeled over.· And then his voice trailed off.· He banged on the door again, broke into another spate of tears, then trailed off into silence.· His sentence edged around a raspy cough, then audibly trailed off.
· He waited for her to turn off the steaming shower.· These students traverse course after remedial course, becoming increasingly turned off to writing, increasingly convinced that they are hopelessly inadequate.· Scott heard it at last and looked around, fumbling for the taps, trying to turn off the shower.· Davis turned off many jazz purists when he went electric.· The hangman then twisted the ladder away, turning off the victim.· Information is held temporarily in electronic circuits and is lost whenever the computer is turned off.· I set the parking brake out of habit, and turned off the headlights.
· He walked off disconsolate: he knew he had played well enough to win and had not.· Sweating profusely, soaking through his robe, Havens raises his ax in triumph and walks off the makeshift stage.· The waitress walks off, calves solid and shapely as vases, leaving a juicy baba before her favourite.· We had quite literally walked off the map.· At this, Nutt senior announced that the game would need another touch judge, and walked off.· And the added bulk helped deter customers from walking off with the product without paying.· Only a few minutes walk off main shopping centre, sea front, Conference Centre, cinemas and theatre.· I call people back when they walk off without their change.
· After stabling our horses, my master muttered that he had business to attend to and wandered off to his chamber.· Sanchez Ortega said that this point he wandered off first to locate a restroom, then to buy some snacks.· Jimmy and the girls wandered off.· He remembered wandering off at that point because Wanda had come in looking for a face to sit on.· My brain wandered off surveying the amorous absurdity of it.· He wandered off to the other side of the room; but I lingered.· I thought he was wandering off, but he went up to the counter and asked for a coffee.· The general himself wandered off as often as possible to hunt various indigenous fowl for the table.
· He was very affected; he blinked rapidly as if warding off tears.· KineHUHre is used as a verbal device similar to knocking on wood to ward off evil forces.· The implication was clear: the Fed was trying to ward off an imminent recession.· When Macintosh appeared, they were quick in invoking the code, as if holding a crucifix to ward off a vampire.· In the stables, Bunny Chaloner was perfectly capable of warding off any too-friendly girl.· In this group were veterans who had worn flea collars in the Gulf to ward off desert bugs.· I think it was a kind of defence mechanism, my way of warding off those waves of sadness.· If so, lacquer might also ward off shipworm.
· The truth never came out until the fear wore off.· Unfortunately, many of the identifying numbers have worn off, and drawings have been lost.· In the evening, after the first stiffness wore off and charades were introduced, the party went with a swing.· After a period of time, levodopa loses its effectiveness and starts to wear off before the next dose is due.· Could she be happy once the novelty of being a married woman wore off?· After the first thrill of novelty wears off, the Internet can be a very dull place.· It often took you like that, when it was wearing off.
· Hours once written off as commercially irrelevant were suddenly transformed into marketable time.· C.-Only eight games into the season and the Raiders are on a rapid pace to being written off.· This increase did not account for almost £200 million written off through a change in accounting practices.· Daimler will write off 2. 3 billion marks in 1995 against the Fokker losses.· Of the top 19 banks, 13 are expected to make losses this year as they write off bad debts.· Patching Up Relations Amelio is not writing off everyone and everything in his path.· From the above interviews it would appear that Howdendyke, as a residential village, has been written off.· Westerners are often tempted to write off the great urban centers of the developing world as almost beyond hope.
Phrases
PHRASES FROM THE ENTRY
  • Rachel and Alan have been dating off and on for five years.
  • And friendship with Clan Diarmaid, that we've been fighting off and on for five generations!
  • Baltimore was foreign off and on.
  • Beck and Phil Woods, both virtuosi, have played together off and on for years, and their rapport is magical.
  • Even so, I thought about this man off and on for most of the week.
  • He's lived in the King Edward off and on for 30 years.
  • He dozed off and on but had no understanding of deeper sleep.
  • The lights flicker off and on, off and on, the signal that the library is about to close.
  • We've been together ever since, off and on, helping each other out.
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
  • We'll be on air in about three minutes.
  • Broadcasting via a system of street loudspeakers the radio is on the air for three hours each Sunday.
  • By this standard, half the sitcoms would be off the air.
  • Gillroy could no longer raise Darwin, and Koepang seemed to be off the air.
  • If left-wing radio talk show hosts got higher ratings, the right-wing hosts would be off the air.
  • Ministers that were on the air selling prayer cloths.
  • Sue was talking as they went, describing the scene, and Kathleen realised they were on air live again.
  • The Channel 5 licence is expected to be awarded in early November and be on air at the latest in 1995.
  • They're under a lot of pressure because they have to be on air 24 hours.
► get off your arse
  • Electioneering, he had talked tough about getting government off the backs of the people.
  • Even if that had happened, it didn't justify the violence of Steen's attempts to get Jacqui off his back.
  • He had a chance now to tell on Lee, to get him off his back, out of Jubilee Wood.
  • Ian denies all but tells them about Mel sleeping with Phil to get them off his back.
  • It would have been a good excuse to use to get Mr Parnham off his back.
  • Maybe he figured the only way to get her off his back was to confess.
  • She got the revolver off the back seat and put it into the glove compartment with the cartridges.
  • Sitting there, day in, day out, hardly able to get off his backside.
  • They should get off their backsides and let us see what they intend to do about it.
► badly off for something
  • A badly packed rucksack can easily throw you off balance.
  • And despite what he'd said, less a token of affection than a means of throwing her off balance.
  • But before Adamowski could get his campaign under way, Daley threw him off balance by going on the offensive.
  • He had an authority, an abrupt decisiveness, that caught me off balance.
  • It throws the viewer off balance but speaks to the part of each person that is capable, potent and dignified.
  • She has a problem with some little gland or other, which can throw her right off balance.
  • The movement threw him off balance.
  • Waking up to that penetrating ice-blue gaze was enough to throw anyone off balance for the rest of the day.
► be off base
  • He had made the most ancient blunder in the business quite off his own bat.
  • Instead, off her own bat, the girl went to see a solicitor in Newton Abbott, Devon.
  • I asked him to help, and he said yes right off the bat.
  • At least not right off the bat.
► off beam► beat somebody/something ↔ off
  • Appenzell really is off the beaten track.
  • Away from the Algarve, it's not hard to get off the beaten track.
  • Soon it is not going to be so easy to get off the beaten path.
  • They are off the beaten track.
  • To say that Crenshaw is off the beaten path is an understatement.
  • Unusual interests, off the beaten track experiences should be of interest.
  • We kept off the beaten track, away from those traders who fixed high prices, for Shallot knew where to go.
  • Yet for most visitors from overseas, Windisch with its treasure is definitely off the beaten track.
  • Many kids who leave home to live alone find they have bitten off more than they can chew.
  • Her book has blown the lid off the Reagan years.
  • You gave instructions that I would be the one to blow the lid off.
  • Depressed, he blows his head off.
  • He held a loaded air pistol to her stepfather's neck and threatened to blow his head off.
  • If I ever get you alone, I am going to blow your head off.
  • It would come in a box and it would blow your head off.
  • She also told the court that he'd heard he'd threatened to blow his head off.
  • Then he saw himself tripping over the gun and blowing his head off.
  • I went jogging to blow off some steam.
  • Jody lets her blow off steam first.
  • She just needed to blow off steam.
  • You got upset, blew off steam.
  • Even extortion has gone off the boil.
  • I knew as soon as I wrote it down I'd go off the boil.
  • Now it appears to have gone off the boil.
  • The second series really went off the boil because there was much more emphasis on the woman lawyer.
  • We're letting the kettle go off the boil.
  • As they are quite tiny, quail are most often savored by nibbling the juicy meat right off the bone.
  • Roast in preheated oven until the meat falls off the bone easily, 2 / 2 to 3 hours.
  • He bounced ideas off colleagues everywhere he went, and they were greeted with enthusiasm.
  • Is there some one I can bounce ideas off?
  • They can bounce ideas off one another and provide a mutual critique or one another's work.
  • We could bounce ideas off each other and share problems.
  • You can bounce ideas off them and benefit from their expertise, as they have often been self-employed themselves.
► break something ↔ off
  • But the results of the Christmas consumer test will give new heart to anyone browned off by the festive ripoff syndrome.
  • Outside, some kids, browned off with the phone-booth, had snapped a sapling rowan in half.
  • He took a beating today but he played his butt off.
  • I had to give the ball up, and then I had work my butt off to get it back.
  • I work my butt off for you, while that restaurant is doing worse and worse.
  • I worked my butt off in basketball and stayed on the varsity-in fact, did well.
  • In short, I worked my butt off.
  • Meanwhile, Inspiral Carpets went in at grass roots level and worked their butts off in the clubs.
  • You could have worked your butt off helping a rep and you finally got the rep doing everything right.
► buy off-plan► buzz off!
  • I had a terrible day at work, and to cap it all off I got a flat tire.
  • And to cap it all off, when she was tied-up she couldn't run backwards, so she lay down instead!
  • And to cap it all she could feel the ominous beginnings of a thundering headache.
  • And to cap it all, the bland sleazy boredom of it all.
  • And, to cap it all, Wimbledon won the Cup.
  • OK, OK, just get off my case, will you?
► cast somebody/something ↔ off
  • My pregnancy caught us by surprise, but we're happy about it.
  • The public's reaction obviously caught the governor off guard.
  • I keep all of my old clothes on the off chance that they might come back into fashion.
  • I asked him on the off chance.
  • Much effort went into tracing remote family connections abroad on the off chance of identifying a benefactor.
  • She thought of ringing him on the off chance of catching him at the flat, but shelved the possibility as unlikely.
  • People are able to get things off their chest in these meetings.
  • "That daughter of yours has a great sense of humour." "Yes, I like to think she's a chip off the old block!"
► chuck yourself off something
  • Bruce went to the doctor, feeling a little off colour, and was told that he had anaemia.
  • I'm fine, thank you, but Elinor's a bit off colour at the moment.
  • Although Vinny Samways has now come off the transfer list, Spurs look light in the key area.
  • Closer Ugueth Urbina is coming off elbow surgery.
  • Davis, coming off an all-pro year, wants to get as much money as he can.
  • Dehere was also coming off a 1-for-14 performance against Boston in the previous game.
  • Goering's second flight had also not come off.
  • If it comes off once a season it is worth it.
  • Look, after coming off tour I've just got no f-ing politics, religion, anything.
  • Although Vinny Samways has now come off the transfer list, Spurs look light in the key area.
  • Closer Ugueth Urbina is coming off elbow surgery.
  • Davis, coming off an all-pro year, wants to get as much money as he can.
  • Dehere was also coming off a 1-for-14 performance against Boston in the previous game.
  • Goering's second flight had also not come off.
  • If it comes off once a season it is worth it.
  • Look, after coming off tour I've just got no f-ing politics, religion, anything.
  • Although Vinny Samways has now come off the transfer list, Spurs look light in the key area.
  • Closer Ugueth Urbina is coming off elbow surgery.
  • Davis, coming off an all-pro year, wants to get as much money as he can.
  • Dehere was also coming off a 1-for-14 performance against Boston in the previous game.
  • Goering's second flight had also not come off.
  • If it comes off once a season it is worth it.
  • Look, after coming off tour I've just got no f-ing politics, religion, anything.
  • Alec Davidson, for example, was one of those who came off worst.
  • Bullock comes off best because her complaining seems so valid.
  • His foster-child comes off best, but in addition each of two nurses receives a tenth of his estate.
  • It may seem, so far, that in terms of clearly defined benefits, the client comes off best out of the deal.
  • Prior to that Meath had come off best when they accounted for Down in the 1990 league decider.
  • The lightning, it seemed to Lydia, had undoubtedly come off best in that encounter.
  • The problem is that history sometimes comes off better.
  • Oh, come off it, George. Sheila wouldn't do that.
► cut something ↔ off► cut something ↔ off
  • I don't know what happened - we just got cut off.
  • But my time on the Internet can range from only a few minutes to several hours before I get cut off.
  • Hi I was looking for Carolyn I think I got cut off.
  • Accessible only by air, the town is cut off from the rest of the country.
  • His main source of strength was cut off as was their mutual ability to deal realistically with the problems.
  • I am cut off at the waist for ever.
  • If he did, and the news reached the States, the money would be cut off immediately.
  • Sometimes the sea is so rough that the islands are cut off from the mainland for weeks at a time.
  • The consequences of this dependence were seen when the flow was cut off so abruptly after 1982.
  • We appear to be cut off and the look of the whole area is old fashioned.
  • When the tops of the posts are cut off, they will be level with the tops of the beams.
► cut somebody ↔ off
  • But, says the bank, countries that have cut themselves off from the global economy have slipped behind.
  • I have been so hungry that I have cut the blood off from crackers and eaten them.
  • I slid Lewis's helmet on and cut myself off from the world.
  • It turned the party in on itself and cut it off from the wider society.
  • The denial of tenderness cuts them off from communication with wives and children.
  • The inadequacy of communications cut Nice off from its hinterland, and condemned the entire county to poverty.
  • Yet these four were all we had to cut us off from the rest of the hall.
  • You cut yourself off from other people and from your true feelings.
► cut somebody ↔ off
  • If you love him, ask him to stay. Otherwise you'll be cutting off your nose to spite your face.
► dash something ↔ off
  • His work isn't usually this bad - he must have had an off day.
  • They must now get a result against free scoring Glenavon next Saturday and hope Bangor have an off day at Comrades.
  • You will have off days when you are tired or a bit under the weather.
► go off at the deep end► drive somebody ↔ off► drop somebody/something ↔ off
  • Boncoeur was on duty at the switchboard.
  • The night shift goes off duty at six a.m.
  • A skeleton staff was on duty to keep the world-wide operations of Royalbion ticking over.
  • Although she loved her work, never before had she wished to be on duty on a day off.
  • But it is believed he was off duty when the telex was sent.
  • Chapman, Detective Steve Kring was on duty that day.
  • He was on duty when his wife-to-be left her military hospital and was put on a troopship for home.
  • It makes no difference which girl is on duty.
  • She was off duty and I didn't call her.
  • The night security man would be on duty.
► ease off on somebody
  • You got off pretty easy if you only had to pay a $33 fine.
  • Newbill got off easy, but he was about the only one.
  • Rich celebrities are allowed to hire good lawyers and get off easy.
  • As you can perhaps appreciate, this rather took the edge off my initial delight.
  • But it takes the edge off the pain.
  • He had decisively taken the edge off trade union power.
  • Moneylarge sums of money-can take the edge off an ambitious person.
  • The burning wood takes the edge off the morning cold, and it helps brew our coffee.
  • The sun was warm on my back, but the south-easterly wind took the edge off the stifling heat.
  • This will take the edge off your anxiety.
  • This would certainly take the edge off the impending Apollo lunar landing.
► eff off!► can’t take your eyes off somebody/something► disappear/vanish from/off the face of the earth
  • A woman had fallen off and broken her pelvis.
  • Any crumbs which fell off the table were pounced on by big bronze lizards - skinks.
  • Apply moleskin or a Band-Aid and leave in place until it falls off naturally in bath or shower.
  • In those days, the sweat would fall off my hands and I'd hear it hitting the floor.
  • Keep the napkin square on your lap or it will fall off, and you may not drop anything on the floor.
  • The railing on the porch looks like it is going to fall off.
  • There were other dangers besides falling off the branch.
  • Too easy to fall off and be dragged around by the heel.
► somebody nearly/almost fell off their chair► it’s as easy as falling off a log► live off the fat of the land► finish something ↔ off► finish something ↔ off► finish somebody/something ↔ off► finish somebody ↔ off
  • Well, first off, I want to know what you've done with the money I gave you.
► send somebody off with a flea in their ear
  • Linda called me back and apologized for flying off the handle.
  • He just flew off the handle.
  • If last night hadn't happened, would she still have flown off the handle, sooner or later ...?
  • Lila flew off the handle and she realizes that.
  • Some people always fly off the handle, and often their anger is totally out of proportion to the problem in hand.
  • It was a relief to get off my feet for a while.
  • The doctor told me to stay off my feet for a few days.
  • But the stories never swept the reading public off its feet the way the Sherlock Holmes tales did.
  • He kind of swept me off my feet.
  • He was in livery, and told me he was rushed off his feet.
  • The boys aim only to get one over on the girls while the girls dream of being romantically swept off their feet.
  • They have not, therefore, been swept off their feet.
  • They placed a lavatory chain around his neck and hoisted him off his feet.
  • We were rushed off our feet yesterday.
► knock/lift etc somebody off their feet
  • All the sales assistants are run off their feet. The shop ought to take on more staff.
  • It's my son's birthday party tomorrow. I've been absolutely rushed off my feet getting ready for it.
  • Bus managers were expecting to be rushed off their feet.
  • He was in livery, and told me he was rushed off his feet.
  • Obviously, the emergency services are run off their feet.
  • There had been lots of problems, and they were rushed off their feet.
  • We were rushed off our feet yesterday.
► start/get off on the wrong/right foot
  • After 50yds fork right on to a track which climbs up Triscombe Combe.
  • At the first fork they must go left and at the next fork right and so on until they were challenged.
  • Then with a wave she forked left and was gone.
  • Bournemouth hopefully won't get off the floor.
  • He meant to get off, I think, but was petrified.
  • Not only do we punish those who get off welfare, we require little of those who stay on.
  • Now there was a solution, that is, if it ever got off the drawing board.
  • Oh yes, they're very good at theory but no bloody good at getting off their bums and looking for themselves!
  • Perhaps he could get off the hook by saying he would go in the morning?
  • We got to get off this here hill.
  • I'll get this off to you first thing in the morning.
  • She managed to get all the letters off before five o'clock.
  • And I said, well, but do they get it off?
  • Firms with shorter names like Boeing do not get chopped off.
  • He then got up off the floor and threatened to hit the labour master with his boots in his hand.
  • I see Chapman got sent off for Portsmouth.
  • Nathan gets and goes off in search of somewhere quiet, clutching a toilet roll and anxious anticipations.
  • Pick your head up to look too far down the road and get it lopped off.
  • Sometimes, a few cues from Deborah got them off and running.
  • To climb back into the presidential race, he must get abortion off the agenda.
  • And I said, well, but do they get it off?
  • Firms with shorter names like Boeing do not get chopped off.
  • He then got up off the floor and threatened to hit the labour master with his boots in his hand.
  • I see Chapman got sent off for Portsmouth.
  • Nathan gets and goes off in search of somewhere quiet, clutching a toilet roll and anxious anticipations.
  • Pick your head up to look too far down the road and get it lopped off.
  • Sometimes, a few cues from Deborah got them off and running.
  • To climb back into the presidential race, he must get abortion off the agenda.
  • And I said, well, but do they get it off?
  • Firms with shorter names like Boeing do not get chopped off.
  • He then got up off the floor and threatened to hit the labour master with his boots in his hand.
  • I see Chapman got sent off for Portsmouth.
  • Nathan gets and goes off in search of somewhere quiet, clutching a toilet roll and anxious anticipations.
  • Pick your head up to look too far down the road and get it lopped off.
  • Sometimes, a few cues from Deborah got them off and running.
  • To climb back into the presidential race, he must get abortion off the agenda.
  • And I said, well, but do they get it off?
  • Firms with shorter names like Boeing do not get chopped off.
  • He then got up off the floor and threatened to hit the labour master with his boots in his hand.
  • I see Chapman got sent off for Portsmouth.
  • Nathan gets and goes off in search of somewhere quiet, clutching a toilet roll and anxious anticipations.
  • Pick your head up to look too far down the road and get it lopped off.
  • Sometimes, a few cues from Deborah got them off and running.
  • To climb back into the presidential race, he must get abortion off the agenda.
► get off to a good/bad etc start
  • Bournemouth hopefully won't get off the floor.
  • He meant to get off, I think, but was petrified.
  • However, when at last she got off he was nowhere to be seen, and she felt another thrill of triumph.
  • Not only do we punish those who get off welfare, we require little of those who stay on.
  • Now there was a solution, that is, if it ever got off the drawing board.
  • Oh yes, they're very good at theory but no bloody good at getting off their bums and looking for themselves!
  • Perhaps he could get off the hook by saying he would go in the morning?
  • Bournemouth hopefully won't get off the floor.
  • He meant to get off, I think, but was petrified.
  • However, when at last she got off he was nowhere to be seen, and she felt another thrill of triumph.
  • Not only do we punish those who get off welfare, we require little of those who stay on.
  • Now there was a solution, that is, if it ever got off the drawing board.
  • Oh yes, they're very good at theory but no bloody good at getting off their bums and looking for themselves!
  • Perhaps he could get off the hook by saying he would go in the morning?
  • We got to get off this here hill.
  • "Did you give him the money?" "No, I told him where to get off."
► get off your butt/ass
  • Now though, the gloves are off.
  • As Mike moved towards my table the two children left him, going off across the terrace in different directions.
  • He was a miner and he went off to the First World War and got killed.
  • My great-grandparents were aghast at the idea of a married woman, with a child, going off to school.
  • Ramsay went off to try to recruit more men in his part of Lothian.
  • Remi was gone off in the dark to get another box.
  • She had just put him inside her when all of a sudden the music got louder and those cannons started going off.
  • The female sits inside the nest while the male goes off collecting nest material.
  • The referee then went off the field to consult an officer at the touchline who waved us off the pitch.
► go off well/badly etc► go off on one
  • Construction of the theme park never got off the ground.
  • And the guerrilla strategy for influencing senior partners never got off the ground.
  • But it has taken the project some time to get off the ground.
  • He's been trying to get off the ground since the mid-60s.
  • He laughed, because I was still to get off the ground.
  • High-definition television, still getting off the ground, is sharper but still too poor for text.
  • It never got off the ground.
  • One Tucson businessman announced that he was organizing such an effort in early 1995, but it never got off the ground.
  • The group was slow to get off the ground, despite an encouraging article about the group in the Rotherham Advertiser.
  • Could the upper management of a leading firm like Merrill Lynch be caught so entirely off guard?
  • I said it suddenly like that, just blurted it out, and I guess it caught him off guard.
  • Penelope flinched, angry at her thoughts, and at the girl who had caught her off guard.
  • She really caught me off guard with her comments.
  • The president faces issues that can catch him off guard and undermine his authority.
  • The question caught Firebug off guard.
  • The words caught him off guard.
  • This caught me completely off guard.
► go off half cocked
  • Hands off my coat!
  • Get your hands off my car!
  • And hands off ... workers anger at factory ban on rings.
  • Couldn't keep our hands off each other.
  • I can't keep my damned hands off you!
  • I could not keep my hands off them.
  • The government should keep its hands off content.
  • They had been unable to keep their hands off each other.
  • They should stay out where they belong - keep their hands off our people.
  • As if now I know it will soon be off my hands time has started to move forward again.
  • Other men's wives did proper jobs once the children were off their hands.
  • Those two girls will soon be off his hands.
  • I take my hat off to those front row men.
  • Jan starts hers at four, for which I take my hat off to her.
  • Whatever it was though, I take my hat off to Babs.
► haul off and hit/punch/kick somebody
  • Also I don't want him to try to have it off with some one else.
  • Dave Mellor did not have it away with that repellent tart.
  • Rush round here every Wednesday afternoon, have it off with Angy and rush back.
  • Was I going to have it off with this woman and a couple of goats?
  • By this time Irene was emitting a steady gurgle of contentment, when she wasn't laughing her head off.
  • If Hancock himself had been around, he would have doubtless squirmed as the audience laughed their heads off.
  • Joey stood in the door laughing his head off and Noreen peered over his shoulder, her hands over her mouth.
  • Louise: Ursula would have laughed her head off.
  • Old Warleigh would laugh his head off if I put reasons like that to him.
  • Then he tips her down and she's screaming her head off.
  • Tony races past, laughing his head off.
  • You were screaming your head off.
► be out of/off your head
  • A geek is a carnival performer who bites the heads off live chickens and snakes.
  • He had no right to bite the head off one of his staunchest friends.
  • I could have bitten her head off.
  • Just to bite their heads off.
  • Not two minutes in his company and she was biting his head off.
  • The gusts are becoming malevolent, snapping the heads off the waves like daisies.
  • This Katherine bites the heads off rag-dolls and threatens her sister Bianca with a pair of pinking shears.
  • You could trust him not to take the mickey, or to turn round and bite your head off.
► head something ↔ off► head somebody ↔ off
  • Ally's jealous that Matt and Ceara hit it off.
  • Billie had joined Lily and they had obviously hit it off.
  • Glad you and Edward have hit it off.
  • I think, in the end, they just didn't hit it off.
  • If two gardeners hit it off, they can go private through electronic messages in a sort of letter-writing setup.
  • Knowing both of them, I knew they would hit it off when they got to know one another better.
  • She and I hit it off immediately.
  • They hit it off from the first.
  • They ended up in the same case study group and hit it off immediately.
► hold somebody ↔ off
  • People will think they let Charmaine off the hook because she's a woman.
  • And he was at the heart of two of the double plays that got Johns off the hook.
  • And this time there is no second match to get anyone off the hook!
  • Apologising for ourselves Apologising and being self-deprecating can let you off the hook.
  • Home striker Paul Crimmen let them off the hook on a number of occasions and Horsham had two goals disallowed.
  • I emphasize the tense because Congress has the habit of letting itself off the hook when convenient.
  • It could even, in a pinch, get him off the hook for the nightly walk to the monument.
  • Why, she wondered, when she had effectively let him off the hook?
  • You could let them off the hook, or you could reel them in.
► leave/take the phone off the hook
  • The phone was ringing off the hook here all weekend.
  • People were queuing up for the new Harry Potter book to arrive - hot off the press.
► keep something ↔ off
  • And keep your hands off Maria.
  • But today with his mind too preoccupied to work he seemed quite unable to keep his hands off it.
  • Couldn't keep our hands off each other.
  • I could not keep my hands off them.
  • The government should keep its hands off content.
  • They had been unable to keep their hands off each other.
  • They should stay out where they belong - keep their hands off our people.
► keep (somebody) off something► keep off something► keep something ↔ off► kick somebody off something► out of kilter/off kilter► get your kit off
  • Cierra's performance knocked my socks off!
  • And yet the correlations just knock my socks off..
  • The current crop of non-Windows databases can knock the socks off their predecessors.
  • This in-your-face marketing could be forgiven if the food absolutely knocked your socks off.
► knock somebody off their pedestal/perch
  • It certainly knocks spots off anything attempted by the newly-Thatcherising Conservatives in the run-up to the 1979 election.
  • You kids, knock it off in there!
  • And, how was it, no, if they knocked it off.
  • I knocked it off as I ran past.
  • No, you didn't have to knock it off you had to choose thingies on a card.
  • The following day we could knock it off in few hours before returning to base.
► I’ll knock your head/block off
  • And I know Frank was knocked off.
  • By five he had knocked off most of the items on his priority list.
  • Everyone else appeared to have some sort of credit card that knocked off up to 25 percent.
  • In Newcastle residents would have £32 knocked off their £349 bill if the Government assessment of spending had been more accurate.
  • It took us some time to get to Kitumbeine and the district officer had knocked off.
  • Suppose I tell you the name of the guy who knocked off Mahoney.
  • Their run through the NCAAs last year, when they knocked off three No. 1 seeds, was no fluke.
  • What do you do with an evil one, who is knocking off the neighbors?
► knock something ↔ off► knock something ↔ off► knock something ↔ off► knock somebody ↔ off► knock something ↔ off► lay somebody ↔ off
  • An estimated 3 million workers have been laid off be-tween 1989 and 1995 as corporate profits have soared.
  • He and Dean had just been laid off during a seniority lapse because of a drastic reduction of crews.
  • He must lay off the kif.
  • The sort of business which flourished in the eighties but suffered in the recession hit nineties, laying off workers.
  • The station has laid off one-third of its staff.
  • Three years later, it reported its worst quarterly loss ever and laid off 16 percent of its work force.
  • We must lay off the booze even during Holy Communion.
  • We sought out people who had been laid off from large corporations and were forced to create new lives.
  • An estimated 3 million workers have been laid off be-tween 1989 and 1995 as corporate profits have soared.
  • He and Dean had just been laid off during a seniority lapse because of a drastic reduction of crews.
  • He must lay off the kif.
  • The sort of business which flourished in the eighties but suffered in the recession hit nineties, laying off workers.
  • The station has laid off one-third of its staff.
  • Three years later, it reported its worst quarterly loss ever and laid off 16 percent of its work force.
  • We must lay off the booze even during Holy Communion.
  • We sought out people who had been laid off from large corporations and were forced to create new lives.
► lay something ↔ off
  • Andy leads off up large, friable flakes, hair plastered to his head but now mercifully sheltered.
  • Bruins coach Steve Kasper led off.
  • He retired the first 12 men he faced before David Justice led off the fifth with a double.
  • Newman spotted the track leading off to the right and swung away from the main road.
  • On the first floor, leading off a covered balcony, were the chambers of the fellows and scholars.
  • Ramirez led off, and Mussina needed 13 pitches to strike him out.
  • The other came after his walk to lead off the ninth with the score tied at seven.
  • Then he violently shoved her down the small flight of stairs that led off their bedroom to the bathroom.
► leave somebody/something off (something)► let somebody off (something)► let something ↔ off► level something ↔ off/out
  • Significantly others have reacted with ambivalence: That exercise on support really took the lid off things in our school.
  • Tilda, unabashed, was out in the pantry, helping the ward orderlies take the lids off the supper trays.
  • I'm letting you off lightly this time, but next time you could end up in jail.
  • Bill Stubbly had got off lightly - so far.
  • But that doesn't mean that the person responsible should be allowed to get off lightly.
  • He'd got off lightly with the men earlier.
  • Mind you, Little Liz got off lightly.
  • Really she was getting off lightly with a few glasses of bleach.
  • Reno got off lightly compared to Curran.
  • You got off lightly in the alley tonight.
  • The basement was always off limits to us kids.
  • Consequently there is no topic that is off limits for discussion, even if a few are off limits for experimentation.
  • However; it was off limits for Robbie to hit or scratch his sister.
  • Nearly one-quarter of the land will be completely off limits to development.
  • People's reaction to loss remains one of society's least understood and most off limits topics for discussion.
  • Rumour has it that these are children with learning difficulties; off limits to our group of visiting helpers.
  • Social Security, 25 percent of all spending for other than interest on the debt, has been declared off limits.
  • Unlike most group discussions, nothing was off limits.
► it fell off the back of a lorry
  • Antonia, as the year pressed on, was gradually dropping off the map.
  • Augustine somehow resists every attempt to wipe it off the map.
  • But after only one spoonful, I could tell this stuff was off the map.
  • Eleven years ago, highway officials voted, in essence, to take Route 66 off the map.
  • Finally, he peeled the markers off the map, leaving it blank once more.
  • In El Salvador they've just had an earthquake, and whole towns were wiped off the map.
  • We're slipping off the map.
  • We had quite literally walked off the map.
► off the mark/wide of the mark
  • Salad crops, however, are quick off the mark.
  • This time, they were slow off the mark.
  • Not one of them is focused, on message or safe to be left alone with a computer.
  • So memories are made of spatiotemporal patterns like those on message boards.
  • But I think he's lovely, and you can tell a mile off that he likes you.
  • He's a hawkeye, and can spot one a mile off, like that faraway kestrel.
  • Our sportsdesk can spot from a mile off a person who can not tell an in-swinger from a bouncer.
  • At other times, the surroundings helped to take my mind off it.
  • I guess there is nothing that will get your mind off every-thing like golf will.
  • Instead they tried to take their minds off the poster campaign by providing weekend entertainment.
  • It takes your mind off how you feel.
  • Kirsty chattered excitedly throughout the journey, helping to keep Shiona's mind off her anxieties.
  • Letters could take my mind off most things.
  • To take his mind off his worries, I suggested that he wrote out a message for his family.
  • When the other guy thinks you are cheating, it can take his mind off the game.
► it/that is a load/weight off somebody’s mind
  • In synopsis the new play sounds rather like his best-known work, Noises Off.
  • Steve Cassidy hears the noises off.
► be off your nut► catch/throw somebody off-balance► off-off Broadway
  • I called on the off-chance that Patty might be home.
  • I just came on the off-chance.
  • I rang Otto on the off-chance.
  • I walked over to the wardrobe and opened the door just on the off-chance.
  • It was a long way to drive on the off-chance that something would come of it.
  • The card is too expensive on the off-chance I could get in an away game during the season.
  • There was no time to contact him, so I came on the off-chance.
► catch/take somebody off-guard
  • Much of the palace is off limits to the public.
  • The officer told the soldiers that the town was off limits.
  • Consequently there is no topic that is off limits for discussion, even if a few are off limits for experimentation.
  • However; it was off limits for Robbie to hit or scratch his sister.
  • Income from interest, dividends or profits from stock sales would be off limits.
  • Unlike most group discussions, nothing was off limits.
  • Mason works out everyday in the off-season.
  • Travel packages to Hawaii are dirt cheap during the off-season.
  • Parking is a problem but the parish council are working to get a proper car park to give off-street parking.
  • Without the creation of new off-street parking areas, this problem is likely to intensify.
  • It rained off and on for the whole afternoon.
  • A large blue diamond was flashing on and off.
  • After she had left the office, Wyatt sat and listened to the ventilator go on and off.
  • After studying accountancy at Chicago University, he worked on and off as an investment analyst.
  • My husband has suffered from heartburn on and off for years and has recently been diagnosed as having a hiatus hernia.
  • The spokeswoman says Disney has 50 to 70 toll-free numbers, which it turns on and off to coincide with special promotions.
  • Then we went for a walk, with him continually flying on and off my shoulder.
  • There are thousands of tax-paying jobs generated on and off the reservation.
  • With the other type switch on and off is non-automatic.
  • He wasn't interested in the heavy political stuff which bored the pants off most people.
  • It took ten minutes to reach Honey Cottage, with Yanto trying his best to scare the pants off Mary.
  • Lovely people who scared the pants off him.
  • The tests scare the pants off many managers.
  • Though, mind you, it scares the pants off poor old Crumwallis.
  • She beat the pants off me last time we played.
  • He is aware of his competitors-and he beats the pants off them.
► pass off well/badly etc
  • The agents managed to pass themselves off as wealthy businessmen.
  • They tried to pass the crystals off as diamonds.
  • Anyone trying to pass these absurdities off as fiction would have been laughed out of Hollywood.
  • As a childless wife can only suffer, there would be no point in passing an intersexual off as a woman.
  • But what more could you expect from the bunch of monkeys trying to pass themselves off as judges?
  • Equally, it is an offence for a private company to pass itself off as being a public company and viceversa.
  • I wonder how many years unqualified people could pass themselves off as consultant thoracic surgeons, for example, without detection.
  • This is the kind of thing a man who passes himself off as a fashion consultant can be expected to know.
  • Though the doubt is really an expression of not-being-committed, it passes itself off as an excuse for not-committing.
  • We could go in and pass ourselves off as invited guests by being brazen.
  • Like most politicians he had all his answers off pat, but he didn't have anything particularly new or interesting to say.
  • She only had to repeat the lines once or twice, and she'd have them down pat.
► pawn somebody/something ↔ off as something► pay something ↔ off► pay somebody ↔ off► pay somebody ↔ off► peel something ↔ off► peel off $20/£50 etc► piss somebody ↔ off► play off somebody/something► pull something ↔ off
  • Both of those editions were pulled off the racks by supermarket chains that had received complaints from customers.
  • I pulled off the road in the Lamar Valley at the trail to Crystal Bench and parked in mud.
  • Morland bosses say they've pulled off the escape of the decade Male speaker Even our staff backed us up.
  • Skill Oxton just failed to pull off victory at Hightown on a rain affected wicket.
  • We pulled off the sheets and untied the prisoner from the post.
  • Yet in February 1990 he pulled off one of cricket's all-time miracles.
► put something ↔ off► put somebody ↔ off
  • All the noise from the crowd put Alison off her game.
  • Don't let her put you off, it's a really good movie.
  • Seles couldn't concentrate on the game - the photographers were putting her off.
  • Stop staring at me, it's putting me off.
  • That weekend put me off camping for the rest of my life!
  • When she told me she worked in an abattoir it rather put me off her.
  • When you know an artist used to abuse his wife and children it does tend to put you off his work.
► put somebody off (something)► put somebody off (something)
  • Both of those editions were pulled off the racks by supermarket chains that had received complaints from customers.
  • Each time I said I liked one, this guy pulls it off the rack.
  • High ready-to-wear prices, but none the less gowns available off the rack.
  • What I hear you saying is that I have lived my life as if I bought my clothes off the rack.
  • But it was the news pages that had really gone off the rails.
  • Has something gone off the rails here?
  • Things started to go off the rails, however, with the Fiat Multipla.
  • Off the record, police officers are saying they are more and more unwilling to arrest those found in possession of small amounts of cannabis.
  • Officials, speaking off the record, said they were still worried about the situation.
  • Strictly off the record, my feeling is that we are going to lose the election.
  • I shaved and showered, clipping two seconds off the record, and was soon out on the highway heading for Faketown.
  • Nothing is off the record here.
  • Skaters and coaches will admit this, off the record.
  • The rest of the discussion, says Himmelstein, was off the record.
  • There is no off the record.
  • They said in 1976 that a tuned track could shave as much as 7 seconds off the record for the mile.
  • Well, I don't blame you, after ... All right: from here on you're totally off the record.
  • You want to be off the record?
  • I don't just want people to get their rocks off.
  • You're a rock group so people get their rocks off.
► be off your rocker► run something ↔ off► run somebody off something► run something ↔ off
  • Boyd seems to enjoy running off at the mouth to the press.
  • That never used to be a fault of his, running off at the mouth.
  • To what smug labors and running off at the mouth!
► run something ↔ off
  • And why should I try to throw you off the scent?
  • But he'd got to put Graham off the scent.
  • Or were they trying to put him off the scent?
  • That put them off the scent.
  • The aspirant towards a more spiritual way of life will be thrown entirely off the scent.
  • The father, be he absentee or abusive, gets off scot-free.
  • Beyond him, I could see the camp coming alive.
  • Birds, like planes, usually face into the wind, so they do not see the plane coming.
  • He looked up to see Norm coming down the driveway.
  • One of the man-things had seen them coming and shouted a warning.
  • Sarah Fleming saw them coming through the window of the front room.
  • She saw him coming and intended to give him a wide berth.
  • That Salvor Hardin had seen it coming made it none the more pleasant.
  • We were heading for the landing zone and could even see a chopper coming toward us.
► send something ↔ off
  • But in his next match he was sent off for twice attacking the goalie.
  • Damiano Tommasi paid for it minutes later when he was sent off for felling Robbie Fowler.
  • His nose was broken in two places by a player he had sent off for violent play.
  • Hull were reduced to 12 men on the hour when Mark Jones was sent off for throwing a punch at Gary Tees.
  • I see Chapman got sent off for Portsmouth.
  • Newbridge substitute Stuart Griffiths was also sent off for stamping against Pontypridd, just six minutes after coming on.
  • Some of these will be on the periodical shelves at your library and others you might want to send off for.
  • Then, Nutt the player appeared to make a retaliatory late tackle, and after being penalised was sent off for dissent.
► send somebody ↔ off► set something ↔ off► set something ↔ off► set something ↔ off► set something ↔ off► set somebody off► set something off against tax
  • All he did was shoot his mouth off a little.
  • So you can't shoot your mouth off.
► show something ↔ off► show something ↔ off► shut something ↔ off
  • He shuts himself off from his two young daughters and composes laments to his dead wife.
  • I shut myself off from the female race and channelled all my energy into my work.
  • Students who avoid learning even the basics can shut themselves off from important sources in the field.
  • These people are completely shut off from the rest of society.
  • Virginia and Peter Stillman were shut off from him now.
► sign somebody off► sign something ↔ off► it’s no skin off somebody’s nose
  • Diesels are condemned by some for being too slow off the mark.
  • This time, they were slow off the mark.
  • And yet the correlations just knock my socks off..
  • So, he popped down to my office, stuck this demo on the turntable and it just blew my socks off.
  • The current crop of non-Windows databases can knock the socks off their predecessors.
  • This in-your-face marketing could be forgiven if the food absolutely knocked your socks off.
► sod off► split something ↔ off► square something ↔ off► start something ↔ off► start somebody ↔ off► start somebody off
  • Recess is a good chance for kids to blow off steam.
  • It was recreation hour, explained Brother Andrew with a smile, and the Brothers were letting off steam.
  • Jody lets her blow off steam first.
  • Others have behavioural problems and need to let off steam in a safe and controlled setting.
  • She just needed to blow off steam.
  • So kicking the cat, biting a towel or pounding a pillow aren't really much use, except for letting off steam.
  • We let off steam in graffiti, vandalism and football hooliganism.
  • You got upset, blew off steam.
  • You want to let off steam?
  • Human experimenters have found it surprisingly difficult to put bats off their stride by playing loud artificial ultrasound at them.
  • Ancient law, it seems, was on their side; thousands were struck off, and more feared to be.
  • Do you want me to be struck off?
  • He was struck off in 1998, but still receives a National Health Service pension.
  • He was struck off the medical register for his pains.
  • In serious breaches of these codes, the professional can be struck off the professional register. 5.
  • Then her head was struck off and fixed on gallows and her body thrown into the pit.
► put somebody off their stroke
  • Donald absolutely swept me off my feet.
  • She's just waiting to be swept off her feet by a handsome stranger.
  • Then Peter came into my life and swept me off my feet.
► take something ↔ off► take something off (something)► take somebody ↔ off► talk the hind leg(s) off a donkey► talk somebody’s ear off
  • As for going off at tangents, my dear, I do it myself, hormone balance not withstanding.
  • Loretta's mind went off at a tangent.
► tear somebody off a strip/tear a strip off somebody► tee somebody off► tell somebody where to go/where to get off► give somebody a ticking off
  • A name which trips off the tongue.
  • Most have spent all their sentient life as paid-up devotees, and the glib phrases soon roll off the tongue.
  • ""How old is Chris?" "I don't know off the top of my head."
  • "Do you remember her name?" "Not off the top of my head."
  • "How much is the house worth?" "Off the top of my head, I'd say it's worth maybe $160,000."
  • There are some good restaurants around here, but I can't tell you their names off the top of my head.
  • I keep doing stuff off the top of my head.
  • In my imagination, I can lift off the top of my head, just like a lid.
  • It was all off the top of my head.
  • And the full bellows tongue is topped with Cambrelle covered padding.
  • Eaten raw in salads, it becomes more interesting if it is topped with herbs and a good quality olive oil.
  • Even the boldly striped mooring posts were topped with a dollop of white, rather like gaudy Cornetto ice-creams.
  • The compost is topped with a layer of pea gravel.
  • The wall was topped with rolls of barbed wire and jagged ends of glass stuck into the eight-foot concrete slabs.
  • Clarisa tossed it all off as fate.
  • When the brandy arrived, he filled a glass and tossed it off, in a gesture of childish defiance.
  • Clarisa tossed it all off as fate.
  • When the brandy arrived, he filled a glass and tossed it off, in a gesture of childish defiance.
  • Clarisa tossed it all off as fate.
  • When the brandy arrived, he filled a glass and tossed it off, in a gesture of childish defiance.
  • After debating, I decided that I should not get off the track.
  • I almost wet in my pants before I got off the track to relieve myself.
  • His name, "Roberto Carlos," just trips off the tongue.
  • A name which trips off the tongue.
  • I am sure some of the guys in my workshop think I am off my trolley.
  • Stuart Baxter must be off his trolley, sending some one like that.
► turn something ↔ off► turn something ↔ off
  • Organizers are considering turning off the air-conditioning for the event, or using it only sporadically.
  • Pulling up to a stop sign, she touches the clutch and the engine turns off.
  • She turned off the water and stepped out on to the rug, dried herself, and dressed in jeans and a shirt.
  • Summertime is a great time to turn off that computer and get outdoors.
  • Then he stepped out of the room, turning off his box.
  • There is no doubt that the ventilator may be turned off when in fact, the patient is already dead.
  • With a gun held at his head he was forced to turn off all the alarms.
► turn somebody ↔ off► turn somebody ↔ off► fall off the wagon► walk somebody off their feet► walk somebody’s legs off► walk something ↔ off
  • A reporter for the Wheeling Intelligencer had just walked off the structure when the catastrophe occurred.
  • Emotionlessly she kissed me in the vineyard and walked off down the row.
  • He walked off disconsolate: he knew he had played well enough to win and had not.
  • It makes the software easier to display and harder to walk off with.
  • Stewart walked off with the look of one who was the sole survivor of a particularly nasty plane crash.
  • The sergeant was tempted to walk off but did not.
  • We had quite literally walked off the map.
  • When he walked off towards the car park Henry didn't bother following.
  • A Whitney Houston tape echoed off the walls.
  • Before I could grasp what was happening, I had bounced off the wall and was crumpling on to the floor in pain.
  • I jumped down off the wall and joined my sister who was standing behind them listening.
  • The husband tried to seize a portrait of her, an oil painting, rip it right off the wall.
  • The noise of conversation from the hall below bounced off the walls around them.
  • There's a woman just up the road so I hop off the wall and run after her.
► warn somebody ↔ off► warn somebody off (doing) something► wash something ↔ off► like water off a duck’s back
  • After the novelty wears off, the Internet can be a very dull place.
  • Once the novelty has worn off, most of these kitchen gadgets just sit in the cupboard, unused for years.
  • But as time wears on, the novelty wears off and dissatisfaction results.
  • Maybe Antonietta herself will tire of me when the novelty wears off.
  • Come in, take the weight off your feet.
  • Make the bed - then you can lie down and take the weight off your feet while we talk.
► be well-off for something► you don’t know when you’re well-off► the wheels come off something
  • I'd like to wipe that stupid grin off your face.
► wipe something off the face of the earth/wipe something off the map
  • I work my butt off for you, while that restaurant is doing worse and worse.
  • I worked my butt off in basketball and stayed on the varsity-in fact, did well.
  • I had to give the ball up, and then I had work my butt off to get it back.
  • In short, I worked my butt off.
  • Meanwhile, Inspiral Carpets went in at grass roots level and worked their butts off in the clubs.
  • You could have worked your butt off helping a rep and you finally got the rep doing everything right.
  • Alec Davidson, for example, was one of those who came off worst.
► take the wraps off something► write somebody/something ↔ off► write something ↔ off► write something ↔ off► write something ↔ off
  • We just got off on the wrong foot the other day.
  • Unfortunately, Pope got off on the wrong foot with his new troops.
  • We got off on the wrong foot the other day and it was my fault.
► put years on somebody/take years off somebody
1away from a place:  He got into his car and drove off. Suddenly they turned off and parked in a side road. Once we were off the main freeway, the trip felt more like a vacation. Her husband was off on a business trip somewhere. Are you ready? Off we go. I must be off now (=I must leave). They were off to Italy (=leaving to go to Italy) and wanted to make an early start.2not on something, or removed from something:  Keep off the grass. As he leaned forward, his hat fell off. Someone had taken the mirror off the wall. Take your coat off. I was trying to scrape the mud off my boots. ► Don’t say ‘off of’ something. Say off something: She fell off her chair (NOT off of her chair).3out of a bus, train, plane etc OPP  on:  I’ll get off at the next stop. Everyone got off the train at Winnipeg.4a machine, piece of equipment etc that is off is not working or operating OPP  on:  Will someone switch the radio off? Make sure all the lights are off.5not at work, school etc because you are ill or on holiday → absent:  My secretary’s been off with flu for the past week. Clare had to stay off school because her mother was ill. You look tired. Why don’t you take tomorrow off? He needs more time off duty for relaxation and rest. ‘Going to work today, mum?’ ‘No. It’s my day off today.’6 informal from someone:  My brother once borrowed some money off him. I got this necklace off a woman outside the market.7a)used to say how far away something is:  We could see the cliffs of Shetland about two miles off. Kara’s home was a long way off across the sea. b)used to say how much time there is between now and a future event:  With the exams now only a week off, I had to study hard. Christmas seemed a long way off. c)used to say how likely or unlikely something is:  Any kind of peace agreement still seems a long way off.8a)only a short distance away from a place:  Our hotel was just off the main street. an island off the coast of France b)connected to a particular room, area, road etc:  There’s a small bathroom off the main bedroom. a narrow street leading off the corner of the square9used to say that a price is reduced by a particular amount:  If you buy more than ten, they knock 10% off.10if an event which has been arranged is off, it will not now take place → cancelled, postponed:  The wedding’s off. The race may have to be called off if the bad weather continues.11British English informal behaviour that is off is rude or is not acceptable:  She walked out before the end of your lecture, which I thought was a bit off. Look, I know when someone’s being off with me.12used to say how much of something someone hasbe well/badly off for something The school’s fairly well off for books these days. How are you off for sports equipment (=do you have enough?)? → well-off, badly off, better off13off and on (also on and off) for short periods but not regularly, over a long period of time:  We’ve been going out together for five years, off and on.14no longer wanting or liking something:  Toby’s been off his food for a few days.go off something/somebody British English I used to enjoy tennis, but I’ve gone off it a bit now. She seems to have gone off Mark since he’s grown a beard.15no longer taking something such as a drug or medicine OPP  on:  The operation was a success, and she’s off the morphine.16a)food that is off is no longer fresh enough to eat → rotten, sour:  Ugh! The milk’s off. Do you think the meat’s gone off? b)used to say that a particular kind of food is not available in a restaurant although it is on the menu:  I’m sorry, the fish pie is off today, sir.17American English not as good as usual:  Sales figures for last year were a little off compared with those of the previous year.18American English not correct or not right:  Our calculations were off. Guess again. You’re way off (=very far from being correct). → right off at right2(2), → straight off at straight1(7), → off the top of your head at top1(18), → noises off at noise1(8)
off1 adverb, preposition, adjectiveoff2 adjectiveoff3 nounoff4 verb
offoff2 adjective [only before noun] Examples
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER DICTIONARIES
  • At the close of trading, the Dow Jones Index was off 28 points.
  • Johnson's free throw shooting was off.
  • Sales figures for the third quarter are a little off compared to the second quarter.
Thesaurus
Longman Language Activatorwhen the price has been reduced
a time when a shop sells things more cheaply than usual: · There's going to be a sale at Macy's next week.· Amelia bought her jacket at a sale for twenty dollars.have a sale: · The bookstore across the street is having a sale.the sales British (=when a lot of shops sell things at reduced prices): · I got this coat for half price in the January sales.
American /in the sales British something that is on sale is being sold at a specially low price in a shop: · "How much was your jacket?'' "I got it on sale in Montgomery Wards. It only cost $45.''· His suit was bought in the sales for £100.go on sale: · I need a new pair of shoes but I want to wait until they go on sale.
goods that are reduced are being sold at a lower price than usual: · Everything is reduced because the store's closing down next month.reduced from ... to ...: · The CDs were reduced from $10 to $5.
if there is £1, $20, 10% etc off something, its usual price has been reduced by that amount: · 20% off all computers in Dixon's summer sale· We got $10 off the chair because it had a small mark on it.
a reduction in the price you pay for something, which is given for a special reason: get a discount (=pay less): · Do you get a discount if you pay in cash?discount on: · Workers at the store get a discount on books and records.30%/£50 etc discount: · There's a 30% discount on all electrical goods.at a discount (=at a reduced price): · Air UK are currently offering tickets to students at a special discount.
a very low price that a shop sells something for, in order to persuade more people to buy things there: · They've got a special offer for seniors -- five nights for the price of three.· Take advantage of our special offer between now and Oct 30 this year.
cut-price goods or services are sold at prices that are much lower than the usual price, either because they have been specially reduced or because they are being sold by someone who always sells things cheaply: · Tottenham Court Road is the best place for cut-price stereo equipment.· Fruit is fairly inexpensive in Japan because they buy cut-price oranges and apples from South Africa.
spoken if something is going cheap , it is being sold more cheaply than usual: · If they have any bicycle lamps going cheap, can you get me one?· Have a look in the travel agent's and see if there are any flights to Toronto going cheap.
a product that is sold at a low price for a short time -- used especially about food, drink, or meals: · Today's lunch special is smoked salmon with rice.on special American (=being sold as a special): · We have Bud beer 6-packs on special at $5.
at a specific time in the future
: an hour/10 years/2 weeks etc from now an hour, 10 years etc from the time when you are speaking: · The package should arrive a few days from now.· There may be no rainforest left 30 years from now.· A couple of months from now, you'll probably have forgotten all about him.
at a time in the future, that you have just mentioned: · I should be finished work by noon. Would you like to get together then?until then: · School starts in September, and until then I'll be staying with friends.· They're sending the results next week, so I won't know anything until then.by then: · Tell him he has two weeks to finish the job. If he's not finished by then, he's fired.
: 6 months/4 days/a week etc away/off if something that you know will happen is 6 months, 4 days, a week etc away or off , it will happen after 6 months, 4 days, a week etc have passed: · The next general elections are still two years away.· Mary was desperately looking forward to her retirement, which was less than a year off.· The wedding was more than a year away but she had already bought a dress for it.· The exams are still a few weeks off -- you've got plenty of time to prepare for them.
spoken say this when something will happen at a particular time in the future: · Come Monday, we'll be in our new house.· A mild winter is nice, but it means that come summer you're going to have a bug problem.
to not be here
· How would she know what happened? She wasn't even here.· Why aren't the scissors here where they belong?· The supermarket hasn't been here long but it's already doing a lot of business.
if someone or something is not around they are not here or anywhere in this area, especially when they are needed: · If Julie isn't around, maybe Maria could help you.· Every time I want to talk to Ted, he's not around.· Why isn't there ever a taxi around when you need one?
to not be in your home, the place where you work etc for a short time, especially when someone wants to see you: · Sally phoned while you were out. I told her to phone back later.· Mr Rogers isn't in at the moment. Can I help you?· I'm going to be out all afternoon.· I'm so busy. If anyone calls for me, tell them I'm not in.
to not be at home, school, or work for several days or weeks, because you are travelling or staying somewhere else: · "We're taking a trip to California." "Oh, how long do you plan to be away?"be away from: · My job requires me to be away from home for five months of the year.be away on business: · While Kurt was away on business, his wife completely redecorated the house.
formal if someone is absent , they are not here, especially in school or the place where they work, because they are ill, on holiday etc: · According to the personnel department you have been absent twice this week already.be absent from: · James was absent from school again today.
informal if someone is off , they are not at work, usually because they are ill or on holiday. In British English you can also use this when someone is not at school: · I'll be off all next week, so I can do some of the yard work then.be off with: · Becky's been off for several days with a bad back.be off sick: · Chris has been off sick a lot lately.be off school/work British: · Jenkins isn't off school again, is he? What's his excuse this time?
a missing thing is lost and may have been stolen; a missing person cannot be found and may be in danger: · One of my earrings is missing - have you seen it?missing from: · Oh no! The last page is missing from the book!
time when you are allowed to be away from work or school
British a period of time when you do not have to go to work or school: · I get four weeks' holiday each year.· Work has been so hectic - I really need a holiday.the holidays/summer holidays/school holidays (=the long periods when schools close): · July 20th is the first day of the summer holidays.Christmas/Easter etc holiday: · Last year we spent most of the Christmas holiday at our grandma's.spend your holidays: · As a boy, Luckett spent his holidays here in Ledsham.in/during the holidays: · We try to do as many different activities as we can with the children during the school holidays.
especially American a period of time when you do not have to go to work or school: · I want you to write about your vacation.· The company allows us 14 vacation days a year.summer/Christmas etc vacation: · Under the new plan, students will have shorter summer vacations and longer winter vacations.spend your vacation: · I spent part of my Christmas vacation with my dad's family.during summer/winter etc vacation: · The skating rink will be open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. during summer vacation.during somebody's/a vacation: · He worked at the resort during his college vacations.
a short holiday from your work or school: · The students get a few days' break in February.spring/winter/Christmas etc break: · Daytona Beach is preparing for the thousands of college students who will arrive for spring break.take a break: · Can you take a break next month?
a period of time when you are allowed to be away from work: · Wednesday is my only day off this week.have/take a day off: · I've got a day off on Friday -- I'll come and see you then.· Can you take the morning off tomorrow?
time when you are allowed to be away from your work, in order to rest or do something different: have/take time off: · Is Phyllis taking any time off when you're there?· I'll get some time off around Christmas.
a period of official holiday time, especially for people who are in the army, navy, or police etc: · I get twenty-five days' leave a year.· Phil still has three days' annual leave owing to him.be on leave (=having a holiday): · They got married while he was on leave from the army.
British a short holiday in the middle of the school term: · It rained all through half-term.· Half-term is the last week in October.
to leave at the start of a journey
· I have to leave early tomorrow morning to fly to Detroit.· Her plane leaves Hong Kong at 10.00.· When are you leaving to go on holiday?· When we arrived at the bus station, the bus had just left.leave for · I'm leaving for Paris on Tuesday.leave from · Coaches leave from Victoria every hour.
especially spoken to leave: · Let's go!· The trip is all planned - we're going in September.· Do you know what time the next bus goes?· I've packed all my bags, and I'm ready to go.
especially British to leave somewhere and begin a journey: · If we set off early in the morning we should reach the coast before dark.set off for: · We set off for Brighton in good spirits.
British informal to leave and begin a journey: · I think we'd better be off now - it'll take at least an hour to get to the airport.be off to: · When are you off to Canada?
to leave - used especially in official information about times when trains, planes, buses etc leave: · The bus was due to depart at any moment.depart from: · The 12.15 shuttle service to Atlanta will depart from platform 16.depart for: · The 06:33 Pullman will depart from London Euston from platform 4.· The train departs Waterloo at 09:00 hours on Saturday.
if a plane takes off , it leaves the ground at the beginning of a flight: · Children spent hours watching the planes take off and land.· This is your Captain speaking. We are due to take off in five minutes.take off from: · Planes were unable to take off from Gatwick owing to high winds.
to quickly start driving a car away from somewhere: · Eddie ran out of the house, jumped into his car, and drove off.· Someone had smashed into her car, and then just driven off.· Adrian just had time to see his father jump into the truck and drive off in a cloud of dust.
if a train pulls out , it slowly gains speed as it leaves the station at the start of a journey: · We got there just as the train was pulling out.
to leave the port at the start of a journey by sea: · Thousands of people stood waving on the quay as the Titanic set sail.(set) sail for: · In November 1928, she set sail for India and arrived in Calcutta seven weeks later.(set) sail from: · It was a bitterly cold morning when we sailed from Dover.
what you say when you are going to leave
British /I'm outta here American informal · Okay, I'm off now.· Right. I'm off to bed.· That's it. I'm outta here!
British /I gotta go American said when you have to go somewhere: · Anyway, I gotta go. Catch up with you later.I must be going: · I must be going. I've got to pick the kids up at four.
British said when you have to hurry: · I'll have another coffee ,and then I must dash.
also I'd better make a move British said when you want to start getting ready to leave soon: · We'd better make tracks, or we'll miss our train.· I think we'd better make a move before it gets dark.
said when you want to leave quickly to avoid danger or something unpleasant: · Oh no. It's him again. I'm getting out of here!
sometimes
on some occasions, but not always: · Sometimes I drive to work and sometimes I walk.· Traffic noise is sometimes a problem.· The journey takes about an hour, sometimes even longer.· Injuries of this type sometimes take a long time to heal.
use this to talk about something that only happens a few times, and does not happen often: · Occasionally we go out to restaurants, but mostly we eat at home.· Kay's moods sometimes made life difficult, and occasionally impossible.very occasionally (=not at all often): · He lives in Australia now, so we only see him very occasionally.
at fairly regular periods but not often: · Every so often, Frank looked up at me and smiled.· The silence was broken every so often by the sound of guns in the distance.
sometimes but not at all often: · It would be nice if we could see each other once in a while.· Teaching art can be fairly dull, but once in a while I come across a talent that really excites me.every once in a while (=fairly rarely): · Every once in a while he disappears for days on end.
if something happens at times , it happens on particular occasions but it is not normal or typical of what usually happens: · In a job like this, you're bound to feel a little stressed at times.· At times even the most talented athletes lose their motivation.
use this to talk about something that sometimes happens that is different from what happens most of the time: · I wear hats now and again, but they don't really suit me.· Now and then she would check on the baby sleeping in the next room.every now and again/every now and then: · Every now and again a passenger would pass through the carriage on the way to the bathroom.
sometimes, but not at all regularly and not very often: · This is the kind of problem that we all have from time to time.· From time to time a helicopter flew by, but mostly the sky remained clear.
especially spoken for short periods, but not continuously or regularly, over a long period of time: · We've been going out together for five years, off and on. · I worked in bars on and off for two years before I decided to go back to college.
when something is switched off
if something is off , someone has switched it off to make it stop working - use this about lights, machines, and other things that use electricity, gas, or water: · Is the cooker off? I can smell gas.· I don't think anyone's at home. All the lights are off.
use this about things that use electricity, for example, machines, computers, or heating equipment: · Do you mean the alarm was switched off all night?· He didn't realize the microphone was switched off.
use this about lights or machines, or about the electricity, gas, or water supply: · Make sure everything's turned off before you leave the house.· The machine is only turned off for a few minutes at a time.
if a light is out , it is not shining because it has been switched off or because there is no electricity: · She must have left the office as her light is out.· All the lights in the house were out.
a machine, telephone, water supply etc that is disconnected has had its power supply, water supply, gas supply etc completely removed so that it cannot be used: · That washing machine doesn't work. It's been disconnected.· When the power was disconnected, he carefully removed the back of the computer.
a telephone that is off the hook has not been put back correctly or has been arranged so you cannot receive any calls: · I've been trying to call her for about half an hour. I think her phone must be off the hook.take the phone off the hook: · I locked the door and took the phone off the hook so no one could disturb me.
Collocations
COLLOCATIONS FROM THE ENTRY
 Brian never usually loses his temper – he must be having an off day.
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
(=stop giving aid)· The US has threatened to cut off aid to the region.· Conditons deteriorated further as western aid was withdrawn.
(=make it start ringing)· A window blew open, setting off the alarm.
(also an alarm sounds formal)· The thieves fled when an alarm went off.
· I entered the shop and switched off the alarm.
(=end it)· The Athenians broke off the alliance with Sparta and made alliances with Argos and Thessaly.
 Do me a favour and get off my back!
· The blow was hard enough to knock him off balance.
 Simpson came off the bench to play in midfield.
(=used to give advice or an opinion) He’d be better off starting with something simpler.
· I got on my bicycle and cycled over to Rob’s house.
· He got off his bike and walked with her for a while.
· Forty people were injured when the bomb exploded.· A 200 pound bomb went off in the car park.
(also detonate a bomb formal) (=make a bomb explode)· The area was cleared and the police safely detonated the bomb.
 She was booed off stage (=they shouted ‘boo’ until she left the stage).
· In the end she decided to break their engagement.
 They are getting browned off by the situation.
 She gave him the brush-off.
 I tried to be friendly but I just got the brush-off.
(=hits something and moves away from it again)· The bullet ricocheted off a wall.
· Several more passengers got on the bus.
· A button has come off my skirt.
(=use up the calories you have eaten)· Even walking will help you to burn up calories.
· He opened the door, took off his cap, and threw it on a hook.
· The police car drove off at top speed.
(=starts to be successful)· His career took off and he started making a lot of money.
 I turned on the heater in the hall to take the chill off the house (=to heat it slightly).
(=used to tell someone angrily to go away)
(=rings at a particular time)· What time do you want the alarm clock to go off tomorrow?
· She took off her clothes and slipped into bed.
· A group of tourists were getting on the coach.
· She took off her coat and went into the kitchen.
 The performance on the first night came off pretty well.
 His family were comfortably off (=fairly rich).
· She beat off competition from dozens of other candidates to get the job.
(=stop using a computer system that requires a password)
· Always switch off your computer at the end of the day.
(=cause it)· The new rules are likely to spark more controversy.
 He was taken off the critical list and is now in a stable condition.
(=the date etc when you stop doing something) The cut-off date for registration is July 2.
 I’m taking a few days off before the wedding.
(=pay the money back)· The first thing I'm going to do is pay off my debts.
(=say officially that it does not have to be paid)· The bank finally agreed to write off the debt.
(=far away from where you are, and exciting)· The company arranges tours to exotic destinations such as Nepal.
(=write asking for information)· Why don't you send for details of the course?
· Wash the dirt off those boots before you come in.
 He felt himself drifting off to sleep.
(=stop taking drugs permanently)· It was years before I was able to come off drugs.
(=very easy)
(=gradually stops)· The effect of the anaesthetic was beginning to wear off.
(=stop the supply of electricity)· You risk having your electricity cut off if you fail to pay the bill.
informal (=send it quickly, especially because you are angry about something)· I fired off an email to the hotel, saying how disgusted I was with their level of service.
(=stop employing them because there is no work for them to do)· Unions fear that many part-time employees will be laid off.
(=suddenly end it)· Were you surprised when Toni broke off your engagement?
· Maggie pulled over and switched off the engine.
(=it gradually becomes less)· The initial excitement of my new job was starting to wear off.
· Take the next exit, junction 15.
(also embark on an expedition formal) (=leave at the start of an expedition)· Trent set off on an expedition to collect plants with fellow botanical students.
(=cause an explosion)· Investigators believe a fuel leak may have triggered the explosion.
(=close to being correct) I guessed it would cost $100 and it was $110, so I was not far out.
 visitors from a far-off land far-off galaxies
 We were in the middle of an exam when the fire alarm went off.
 Someone set off the fire alarm.
 Jeff and David were in the back yard setting off fireworks.
 Red warning lights flashed on and off (=shone for a short time and then stopped shining).
· She’d just got off a flight from Buenos Aires.
 The appeal has got off to a flying start, with over £200,000 raised in the first week.
British English (=not want to eat)· The baby is off his food.
British English (=to stop wanting to eat)· Since becoming ill, he has gone off his food.
(=succeeds)· She gave up a career in law to become an actor, but the gamble has paid off.
British English (=played to decide the winner after a previous game ended with both teams having equal points)
 What time do you get off work?
 I went to bed but couldn’t get off to sleep.
· Elsie took off her glasses and rubbed her eyes.
 The injury to Keane took the gloss off Manchester United’s victory.
· Mr Brownlow took off his gloves.
 I’d just gone off to sleep when the phone rang.
 a hands-off style of management
 The government has a hands-off approach to the industry.
· We turn the heating off before bed.
· The heating goes off automatically when the room is warm enough.
 She stormed out in a huff.
· I scraped the ice off the car windscreen.
(=discuss each other’s ideas and think of good new ones)· Our regular meetings are opportunities to fire ideas off each other.
(=cause it to happen suddenly)· It is claimed that the police provoked the incident.
(also embark on a journey formal) (=start a long journey)· Before setting off on a journey, look at maps and guidebooks.
 I think it might kick off in here with all these football fans around.
 Do you want to knock off early today?
 We usually knock off work at about twelve on Saturday.
· One of the builders fell off a ladder and broke his leg.
· He switched off the lamp beside the bed.
(=laugh a lot)· The audience laughed its head off all the way through.
(=continue something that has stopped for a short time) Barry took up the story where Justine had left off.
(=allow someone to escape punishment or criticism) He’d decided to make Sandra wait before letting her off the hook.
(=give someone a less serious punishment than they deserve) I think young criminals are let off far too lightly.
 I wished he would just get off the line.
 Most people in the countryside live off the land (=live by growing or finding their own food).
 Knowing he was safe was a load off my mind (=I felt less worried).
(=give back the money you borrowed, usually over a period of time)· You can repay the loan early without a penalty.
· Is the tape machine switched off?
(also remove make-up formal)· Take off eye make-up gently, using a cotton ball.
· I can’t get this dirty mark to come out.
(=it starts)· The match kicks off at 3.30 pm.
(=stop taking a medication)· Coming off the medication made him more aggressive.
 Want a game? It might take your mind off things.
 when Hubbard shuffled off this mortal coil (=died)
(=finish paying all the money you owe)· They paid off their mortgage five years early.
· We got on the motorway near Watford.
(=leave the motorway)· We forgot to turn off the motorway and ended up in London.
(=take off a baby's nappy)· Come on, let's take this dirty nappy off.
(=stop them)· The two companies have broken off negotiations on the deal.
(=something stops seeming new and interesting)· Once the novelty had worn off he didn't play with his train set much.
 The sudden movement of the ship knocked them both off balance.
 Telephone charges are lower during off-peak periods.
 an off-road vehicle
 It’s yours for a one-off payment of only £200.
(=be very noticeable)· One mistake jumped off the page.
(=take most of the paint off a surface using a tool)· Scrape off any loose or flaking paint and rub the surface with sandpaper.
· The bus stopped and half the passengers got off.
(=it cannot be used because it is not connected or is already being used)· On Friday nights we just take the phone off the hook and relax.
 We’ll meet again in the morning and we can pick up where we left off.
 You get really pissed off applying for jobs all the time.
(=goes into the air)· The flight attendants served drinks shortly after the plane took off.
· Would he ever see her again after they got off the plane?
 The two musicians played off each other in a piece of inspired improvisation.
 a young singer who was tragically cut off in her prime (=died while she was in her prime)
(=cause them)· The arrests sparked off violent street protests.
(also emit radiation formal) (=produce it)· The lamps emit ultra-violet radiation.
· You can turn the radio off, darling, we're not listening to it.
(=it starts to rain less)· The rain should ease off in a minute.
 They missed the off-ramp to Manhattan.
· After the incident, Croatia broke off all relations with Serbia.
· She was very upset when I ended the relationship.
(=happening sometimes and not at other times)· Their on–off relationship seemed to have come to an end two years ago.
 He goes off on a riff about the problems of being middle-aged.
 I could tell right off that something was wrong.
American English (=immediately, without having to think carefully) Kay answered right off the bat.
(=make it start)· The incident sparked off a riot which lasted for three days.
 I’ve been rushed off my feet (=extremely busy) all day.
informal (=scare someone very much)
(=scream a lot)· At least the idiot wasn’t panicking and screaming his head off.
· They called off the search when it got dark.
(=lose a game or competition, or not be as successful as someone else)
 The department gave Tom a send-off he won’t forget!
· They took off their shoes in the hallway.
(=put them on or take them off quickly or gently)· She slipped off her shoes and curled her feet up under her on the sofa.
(=take them off by moving your legs)· Maria kicked off her shoes and sat down.
 The robbers were armed with sawn-off shotguns (=ones that have been made shorter, so the balls go in different directions).
British English, be out sick American English (=be away from work or school because you are ill)· Half my staff were off sick.
 For the last month, she has been signed off sick from work.
(=start sleeping, especially without meaning to)· She’d drifted off to sleep on the sofa.
(=produce a smell)· Rubber gives off a strong smell when it is burned.
· My feet got so hot and sweaty I took my trainers and socks off.
· I came off stage last night and just collapsed in a heap.
(=leave the stage, especially before you should)· The pianist walked off the stage after playing only a few notes.
· On your first day at work, you want to get off to a good start.
 She brought some fruit on the journey to stave off hunger.
(=decide not to continue with it)· The strike was called off two days later.
(=not talk about it)· I knew he was trying to avoid the subject of drugs.· She hoped that Anna would keep off the subject of Luke for the next few hours.
(=make them talk about something else)· It was difficult to get him off the subject of cars.
· I couldn’t find the on-off switch.
 Mimi became jealous when Jack’s career started taking off.
 I rang my boss and arranged to take some time off.
 Dad took the day off to come with me.
· I forgot to turn the tap off.
· I switched off the television and went to bed.
(=become trapped as the sea rises)· Two anglers had to be rescued after getting cut off by the tide.
· He got off the train at Flushing.
 Mark turned off the highway and into Provincetown.
(=disappear so that no sign remains) The youngster vanished without a trace one day and has never been found.
 The plane veered off course.
(=win when it is difficult)· Martin pulled off a surprise victory in the semi-final.
(=becomes quieter until you cannot hear it)· ‘It's just that … ’, his voice trailed away uncertainly.
(=go for a walk so that your stomach feels less full)
(=turn a tap to stop water coming out of pipes or to let it come out)· Turn the water off while you're brushing your teeth.
(=become or stay thinner)· I changed my eating habits so I’d keep the weight off.
 Many pensioners are less well-off (=have less money) than they used to be.
(=win when it is difficult to win)· The side has pulled off two excellent wins in the past couple of weeks.
 Brenda jumped in the car and zoomed off.
COLLOCATIONS FROM THE CORPUSNOUN
· But the trucks are unwieldy, easily thrown off balance.· Yet though he was off balance, Gwynn still wristed out two hits against the Rockies.· As if she could even stand up with only one on without it instantly jerking her off balance.
· Much effort went into tracing remote family connections abroad on the off chance of identifying a benefactor.· I asked him on the off chance.· On the off chance that some one had been careless, I tried the pair of them together.· She thought of ringing him on the off chance of catching him at the flat, but shelved the possibility as unlikely.
· But things have sort of veered off course.
· Obviously the market is having an off day, and this is a marvellous opportunity for you to double your stake.· They must now get a result against free scoring Glenavon next Saturday and rely on Bangor having an off day at Comrades.· If the defense has an off day, the offense usually steps up.· Perhaps Beau was having an off day?· Speed had an off day but still managed to score.· Jack was certainly aware that this was one of his off days.
· Last night, when I came in off duty, I found him writhing on the floor in pain.
· We would hide in rice fields, jungles, and swamps, and we would attack when the enemy was off guard.· Instead, slow your responses down to throw the boss off guard.
· He even asked the taxi driver to go via an off licence.
· In 1967, he began spending the off season working as an assistant to one of California Gov.· She worked in the store's office during the off season while attending Indiana.· Q: What do you do in the off season?· The remaining truffles are boiled for sterilization and canned for sale as truffles and as truffle juice during the off season.
· Then two byes low past the off stump, horror or horrors.· John Glendenen was dropped at gully on two and also survived a couple of injudicious waves outside the off stump.· Then I got a short one outside the off stump - four, to go to 96.· Pringle's feeble push forward failed to save his off stump.· He advanced on him only for an exquisite googly to dip and dart through the gap to bruise the off stump.· If he drops it short on the off stump, cut him.
· And there's been no rush to the off switch.· On this idea, government should hit the off switch.· Primo could feel his fingers losing hold of the on / off switch of his intake valve.
Phrases
PHRASES FROM THE ENTRY
  • And besides, pretty women have such off days, don't they?
  • If the defense has an off day, the offense usually steps up.
  • Obviously the market is having an off day, and this is a marvellous opportunity for you to double your stake.
  • On off days he could sound tired, and sometimes excitement carried him away to an excess of length.
  • Perhaps Beau was having an off day?
  • They must now get a result against free scoring Glenavon next Saturday and rely on Bangor having an off day at Comrades.
  • In 1967, he began spending the off season working as an assistant to one of California Gov.
  • Q: What do you do in the off season?
  • She worked in the store's office during the off season while attending Indiana.
  • The remaining truffles are boiled for sterilization and canned for sale as truffles and as truffle juice during the off season.
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
  • We'll be on air in about three minutes.
  • Broadcasting via a system of street loudspeakers the radio is on the air for three hours each Sunday.
  • By this standard, half the sitcoms would be off the air.
  • Gillroy could no longer raise Darwin, and Koepang seemed to be off the air.
  • If left-wing radio talk show hosts got higher ratings, the right-wing hosts would be off the air.
  • Ministers that were on the air selling prayer cloths.
  • Sue was talking as they went, describing the scene, and Kathleen realised they were on air live again.
  • The Channel 5 licence is expected to be awarded in early November and be on air at the latest in 1995.
  • They're under a lot of pressure because they have to be on air 24 hours.
► get off your arse
  • Electioneering, he had talked tough about getting government off the backs of the people.
  • Even if that had happened, it didn't justify the violence of Steen's attempts to get Jacqui off his back.
  • He had a chance now to tell on Lee, to get him off his back, out of Jubilee Wood.
  • Ian denies all but tells them about Mel sleeping with Phil to get them off his back.
  • It would have been a good excuse to use to get Mr Parnham off his back.
  • Maybe he figured the only way to get her off his back was to confess.
  • She got the revolver off the back seat and put it into the glove compartment with the cartridges.
  • Sitting there, day in, day out, hardly able to get off his backside.
  • They should get off their backsides and let us see what they intend to do about it.
► badly off for something
  • A badly packed rucksack can easily throw you off balance.
  • And despite what he'd said, less a token of affection than a means of throwing her off balance.
  • But before Adamowski could get his campaign under way, Daley threw him off balance by going on the offensive.
  • He had an authority, an abrupt decisiveness, that caught me off balance.
  • It throws the viewer off balance but speaks to the part of each person that is capable, potent and dignified.
  • She has a problem with some little gland or other, which can throw her right off balance.
  • The movement threw him off balance.
  • Waking up to that penetrating ice-blue gaze was enough to throw anyone off balance for the rest of the day.
► be off base
  • He had made the most ancient blunder in the business quite off his own bat.
  • Instead, off her own bat, the girl went to see a solicitor in Newton Abbott, Devon.
  • I asked him to help, and he said yes right off the bat.
  • At least not right off the bat.
► off beam► beat somebody/something ↔ off
  • Appenzell really is off the beaten track.
  • Away from the Algarve, it's not hard to get off the beaten track.
  • Soon it is not going to be so easy to get off the beaten path.
  • They are off the beaten track.
  • To say that Crenshaw is off the beaten path is an understatement.
  • Unusual interests, off the beaten track experiences should be of interest.
  • We kept off the beaten track, away from those traders who fixed high prices, for Shallot knew where to go.
  • Yet for most visitors from overseas, Windisch with its treasure is definitely off the beaten track.
  • Many kids who leave home to live alone find they have bitten off more than they can chew.
  • Her book has blown the lid off the Reagan years.
  • You gave instructions that I would be the one to blow the lid off.
  • Depressed, he blows his head off.
  • He held a loaded air pistol to her stepfather's neck and threatened to blow his head off.
  • If I ever get you alone, I am going to blow your head off.
  • It would come in a box and it would blow your head off.
  • She also told the court that he'd heard he'd threatened to blow his head off.
  • Then he saw himself tripping over the gun and blowing his head off.
  • I went jogging to blow off some steam.
  • Jody lets her blow off steam first.
  • She just needed to blow off steam.
  • You got upset, blew off steam.
  • Even extortion has gone off the boil.
  • I knew as soon as I wrote it down I'd go off the boil.
  • Now it appears to have gone off the boil.
  • The second series really went off the boil because there was much more emphasis on the woman lawyer.
  • We're letting the kettle go off the boil.
  • As they are quite tiny, quail are most often savored by nibbling the juicy meat right off the bone.
  • Roast in preheated oven until the meat falls off the bone easily, 2 / 2 to 3 hours.
  • He bounced ideas off colleagues everywhere he went, and they were greeted with enthusiasm.
  • Is there some one I can bounce ideas off?
  • They can bounce ideas off one another and provide a mutual critique or one another's work.
  • We could bounce ideas off each other and share problems.
  • You can bounce ideas off them and benefit from their expertise, as they have often been self-employed themselves.
► break something ↔ off
  • But the results of the Christmas consumer test will give new heart to anyone browned off by the festive ripoff syndrome.
  • Outside, some kids, browned off with the phone-booth, had snapped a sapling rowan in half.
  • He took a beating today but he played his butt off.
  • I had to give the ball up, and then I had work my butt off to get it back.
  • I work my butt off for you, while that restaurant is doing worse and worse.
  • I worked my butt off in basketball and stayed on the varsity-in fact, did well.
  • In short, I worked my butt off.
  • Meanwhile, Inspiral Carpets went in at grass roots level and worked their butts off in the clubs.
  • You could have worked your butt off helping a rep and you finally got the rep doing everything right.
► buy off-plan► buzz off!
  • I had a terrible day at work, and to cap it all off I got a flat tire.
  • And to cap it all off, when she was tied-up she couldn't run backwards, so she lay down instead!
  • And to cap it all she could feel the ominous beginnings of a thundering headache.
  • And to cap it all, the bland sleazy boredom of it all.
  • And, to cap it all, Wimbledon won the Cup.
  • OK, OK, just get off my case, will you?
► cast somebody/something ↔ off
  • My pregnancy caught us by surprise, but we're happy about it.
  • The public's reaction obviously caught the governor off guard.
  • I keep all of my old clothes on the off chance that they might come back into fashion.
  • I asked him on the off chance.
  • Much effort went into tracing remote family connections abroad on the off chance of identifying a benefactor.
  • She thought of ringing him on the off chance of catching him at the flat, but shelved the possibility as unlikely.
  • People are able to get things off their chest in these meetings.
  • "That daughter of yours has a great sense of humour." "Yes, I like to think she's a chip off the old block!"
► chuck yourself off something
  • Bruce went to the doctor, feeling a little off colour, and was told that he had anaemia.
  • I'm fine, thank you, but Elinor's a bit off colour at the moment.
  • Although Vinny Samways has now come off the transfer list, Spurs look light in the key area.
  • Closer Ugueth Urbina is coming off elbow surgery.
  • Davis, coming off an all-pro year, wants to get as much money as he can.
  • Dehere was also coming off a 1-for-14 performance against Boston in the previous game.
  • Goering's second flight had also not come off.
  • If it comes off once a season it is worth it.
  • Look, after coming off tour I've just got no f-ing politics, religion, anything.
  • Although Vinny Samways has now come off the transfer list, Spurs look light in the key area.
  • Closer Ugueth Urbina is coming off elbow surgery.
  • Davis, coming off an all-pro year, wants to get as much money as he can.
  • Dehere was also coming off a 1-for-14 performance against Boston in the previous game.
  • Goering's second flight had also not come off.
  • If it comes off once a season it is worth it.
  • Look, after coming off tour I've just got no f-ing politics, religion, anything.
  • Although Vinny Samways has now come off the transfer list, Spurs look light in the key area.
  • Closer Ugueth Urbina is coming off elbow surgery.
  • Davis, coming off an all-pro year, wants to get as much money as he can.
  • Dehere was also coming off a 1-for-14 performance against Boston in the previous game.
  • Goering's second flight had also not come off.
  • If it comes off once a season it is worth it.
  • Look, after coming off tour I've just got no f-ing politics, religion, anything.
  • Alec Davidson, for example, was one of those who came off worst.
  • Bullock comes off best because her complaining seems so valid.
  • His foster-child comes off best, but in addition each of two nurses receives a tenth of his estate.
  • It may seem, so far, that in terms of clearly defined benefits, the client comes off best out of the deal.
  • Prior to that Meath had come off best when they accounted for Down in the 1990 league decider.
  • The lightning, it seemed to Lydia, had undoubtedly come off best in that encounter.
  • The problem is that history sometimes comes off better.
  • Oh, come off it, George. Sheila wouldn't do that.
► cut something ↔ off► cut something ↔ off
  • I don't know what happened - we just got cut off.
  • But my time on the Internet can range from only a few minutes to several hours before I get cut off.
  • Hi I was looking for Carolyn I think I got cut off.
  • Accessible only by air, the town is cut off from the rest of the country.
  • His main source of strength was cut off as was their mutual ability to deal realistically with the problems.
  • I am cut off at the waist for ever.
  • If he did, and the news reached the States, the money would be cut off immediately.
  • Sometimes the sea is so rough that the islands are cut off from the mainland for weeks at a time.
  • The consequences of this dependence were seen when the flow was cut off so abruptly after 1982.
  • We appear to be cut off and the look of the whole area is old fashioned.
  • When the tops of the posts are cut off, they will be level with the tops of the beams.
► cut somebody ↔ off
  • But, says the bank, countries that have cut themselves off from the global economy have slipped behind.
  • I have been so hungry that I have cut the blood off from crackers and eaten them.
  • I slid Lewis's helmet on and cut myself off from the world.
  • It turned the party in on itself and cut it off from the wider society.
  • The denial of tenderness cuts them off from communication with wives and children.
  • The inadequacy of communications cut Nice off from its hinterland, and condemned the entire county to poverty.
  • Yet these four were all we had to cut us off from the rest of the hall.
  • You cut yourself off from other people and from your true feelings.
► cut somebody ↔ off
  • If you love him, ask him to stay. Otherwise you'll be cutting off your nose to spite your face.
► dash something ↔ off
  • His work isn't usually this bad - he must have had an off day.
  • They must now get a result against free scoring Glenavon next Saturday and hope Bangor have an off day at Comrades.
  • You will have off days when you are tired or a bit under the weather.
► go off at the deep end► drive somebody ↔ off► drop somebody/something ↔ off
  • Boncoeur was on duty at the switchboard.
  • The night shift goes off duty at six a.m.
  • A skeleton staff was on duty to keep the world-wide operations of Royalbion ticking over.
  • Although she loved her work, never before had she wished to be on duty on a day off.
  • But it is believed he was off duty when the telex was sent.
  • Chapman, Detective Steve Kring was on duty that day.
  • He was on duty when his wife-to-be left her military hospital and was put on a troopship for home.
  • It makes no difference which girl is on duty.
  • She was off duty and I didn't call her.
  • The night security man would be on duty.
► ease off on somebody
  • You got off pretty easy if you only had to pay a $33 fine.
  • Newbill got off easy, but he was about the only one.
  • Rich celebrities are allowed to hire good lawyers and get off easy.
  • As you can perhaps appreciate, this rather took the edge off my initial delight.
  • But it takes the edge off the pain.
  • He had decisively taken the edge off trade union power.
  • Moneylarge sums of money-can take the edge off an ambitious person.
  • The burning wood takes the edge off the morning cold, and it helps brew our coffee.
  • The sun was warm on my back, but the south-easterly wind took the edge off the stifling heat.
  • This will take the edge off your anxiety.
  • This would certainly take the edge off the impending Apollo lunar landing.
► eff off!► can’t take your eyes off somebody/something► disappear/vanish from/off the face of the earth
  • A woman had fallen off and broken her pelvis.
  • Any crumbs which fell off the table were pounced on by big bronze lizards - skinks.
  • Apply moleskin or a Band-Aid and leave in place until it falls off naturally in bath or shower.
  • In those days, the sweat would fall off my hands and I'd hear it hitting the floor.
  • Keep the napkin square on your lap or it will fall off, and you may not drop anything on the floor.
  • The railing on the porch looks like it is going to fall off.
  • There were other dangers besides falling off the branch.
  • Too easy to fall off and be dragged around by the heel.
► somebody nearly/almost fell off their chair► it’s as easy as falling off a log► live off the fat of the land► finish something ↔ off► finish something ↔ off► finish somebody/something ↔ off► finish somebody ↔ off
  • Well, first off, I want to know what you've done with the money I gave you.
► send somebody off with a flea in their ear
  • Linda called me back and apologized for flying off the handle.
  • He just flew off the handle.
  • If last night hadn't happened, would she still have flown off the handle, sooner or later ...?
  • Lila flew off the handle and she realizes that.
  • Some people always fly off the handle, and often their anger is totally out of proportion to the problem in hand.
  • It was a relief to get off my feet for a while.
  • The doctor told me to stay off my feet for a few days.
  • But the stories never swept the reading public off its feet the way the Sherlock Holmes tales did.
  • He kind of swept me off my feet.
  • He was in livery, and told me he was rushed off his feet.
  • The boys aim only to get one over on the girls while the girls dream of being romantically swept off their feet.
  • They have not, therefore, been swept off their feet.
  • They placed a lavatory chain around his neck and hoisted him off his feet.
  • We were rushed off our feet yesterday.
► knock/lift etc somebody off their feet
  • All the sales assistants are run off their feet. The shop ought to take on more staff.
  • It's my son's birthday party tomorrow. I've been absolutely rushed off my feet getting ready for it.
  • Bus managers were expecting to be rushed off their feet.
  • He was in livery, and told me he was rushed off his feet.
  • Obviously, the emergency services are run off their feet.
  • There had been lots of problems, and they were rushed off their feet.
  • We were rushed off our feet yesterday.
► start/get off on the wrong/right foot
  • After 50yds fork right on to a track which climbs up Triscombe Combe.
  • At the first fork they must go left and at the next fork right and so on until they were challenged.
  • Then with a wave she forked left and was gone.
  • Bournemouth hopefully won't get off the floor.
  • He meant to get off, I think, but was petrified.
  • Not only do we punish those who get off welfare, we require little of those who stay on.
  • Now there was a solution, that is, if it ever got off the drawing board.
  • Oh yes, they're very good at theory but no bloody good at getting off their bums and looking for themselves!
  • Perhaps he could get off the hook by saying he would go in the morning?
  • We got to get off this here hill.
  • I'll get this off to you first thing in the morning.
  • She managed to get all the letters off before five o'clock.
  • And I said, well, but do they get it off?
  • Firms with shorter names like Boeing do not get chopped off.
  • He then got up off the floor and threatened to hit the labour master with his boots in his hand.
  • I see Chapman got sent off for Portsmouth.
  • Nathan gets and goes off in search of somewhere quiet, clutching a toilet roll and anxious anticipations.
  • Pick your head up to look too far down the road and get it lopped off.
  • Sometimes, a few cues from Deborah got them off and running.
  • To climb back into the presidential race, he must get abortion off the agenda.
  • And I said, well, but do they get it off?
  • Firms with shorter names like Boeing do not get chopped off.
  • He then got up off the floor and threatened to hit the labour master with his boots in his hand.
  • I see Chapman got sent off for Portsmouth.
  • Nathan gets and goes off in search of somewhere quiet, clutching a toilet roll and anxious anticipations.
  • Pick your head up to look too far down the road and get it lopped off.
  • Sometimes, a few cues from Deborah got them off and running.
  • To climb back into the presidential race, he must get abortion off the agenda.
  • And I said, well, but do they get it off?
  • Firms with shorter names like Boeing do not get chopped off.
  • He then got up off the floor and threatened to hit the labour master with his boots in his hand.
  • I see Chapman got sent off for Portsmouth.
  • Nathan gets and goes off in search of somewhere quiet, clutching a toilet roll and anxious anticipations.
  • Pick your head up to look too far down the road and get it lopped off.
  • Sometimes, a few cues from Deborah got them off and running.
  • To climb back into the presidential race, he must get abortion off the agenda.
  • And I said, well, but do they get it off?
  • Firms with shorter names like Boeing do not get chopped off.
  • He then got up off the floor and threatened to hit the labour master with his boots in his hand.
  • I see Chapman got sent off for Portsmouth.
  • Nathan gets and goes off in search of somewhere quiet, clutching a toilet roll and anxious anticipations.
  • Pick your head up to look too far down the road and get it lopped off.
  • Sometimes, a few cues from Deborah got them off and running.
  • To climb back into the presidential race, he must get abortion off the agenda.
► get off to a good/bad etc start
  • Bournemouth hopefully won't get off the floor.
  • He meant to get off, I think, but was petrified.
  • However, when at last she got off he was nowhere to be seen, and she felt another thrill of triumph.
  • Not only do we punish those who get off welfare, we require little of those who stay on.
  • Now there was a solution, that is, if it ever got off the drawing board.
  • Oh yes, they're very good at theory but no bloody good at getting off their bums and looking for themselves!
  • Perhaps he could get off the hook by saying he would go in the morning?
  • Bournemouth hopefully won't get off the floor.
  • He meant to get off, I think, but was petrified.
  • However, when at last she got off he was nowhere to be seen, and she felt another thrill of triumph.
  • Not only do we punish those who get off welfare, we require little of those who stay on.
  • Now there was a solution, that is, if it ever got off the drawing board.
  • Oh yes, they're very good at theory but no bloody good at getting off their bums and looking for themselves!
  • Perhaps he could get off the hook by saying he would go in the morning?
  • We got to get off this here hill.
  • "Did you give him the money?" "No, I told him where to get off."
► get off your butt/ass
  • Now though, the gloves are off.
  • As Mike moved towards my table the two children left him, going off across the terrace in different directions.
  • He was a miner and he went off to the First World War and got killed.
  • My great-grandparents were aghast at the idea of a married woman, with a child, going off to school.
  • Ramsay went off to try to recruit more men in his part of Lothian.
  • Remi was gone off in the dark to get another box.
  • She had just put him inside her when all of a sudden the music got louder and those cannons started going off.
  • The female sits inside the nest while the male goes off collecting nest material.
  • The referee then went off the field to consult an officer at the touchline who waved us off the pitch.
► go off well/badly etc► go off on one
  • Construction of the theme park never got off the ground.
  • And the guerrilla strategy for influencing senior partners never got off the ground.
  • But it has taken the project some time to get off the ground.
  • He's been trying to get off the ground since the mid-60s.
  • He laughed, because I was still to get off the ground.
  • High-definition television, still getting off the ground, is sharper but still too poor for text.
  • It never got off the ground.
  • One Tucson businessman announced that he was organizing such an effort in early 1995, but it never got off the ground.
  • The group was slow to get off the ground, despite an encouraging article about the group in the Rotherham Advertiser.
  • Could the upper management of a leading firm like Merrill Lynch be caught so entirely off guard?
  • I said it suddenly like that, just blurted it out, and I guess it caught him off guard.
  • Penelope flinched, angry at her thoughts, and at the girl who had caught her off guard.
  • She really caught me off guard with her comments.
  • The president faces issues that can catch him off guard and undermine his authority.
  • The question caught Firebug off guard.
  • The words caught him off guard.
  • This caught me completely off guard.
► go off half cocked
  • Hands off my coat!
  • Get your hands off my car!
  • And hands off ... workers anger at factory ban on rings.
  • Couldn't keep our hands off each other.
  • I can't keep my damned hands off you!
  • I could not keep my hands off them.
  • The government should keep its hands off content.
  • They had been unable to keep their hands off each other.
  • They should stay out where they belong - keep their hands off our people.
  • As if now I know it will soon be off my hands time has started to move forward again.
  • Other men's wives did proper jobs once the children were off their hands.
  • Those two girls will soon be off his hands.
  • I take my hat off to those front row men.
  • Jan starts hers at four, for which I take my hat off to her.
  • Whatever it was though, I take my hat off to Babs.
► haul off and hit/punch/kick somebody
  • Also I don't want him to try to have it off with some one else.
  • Dave Mellor did not have it away with that repellent tart.
  • Rush round here every Wednesday afternoon, have it off with Angy and rush back.
  • Was I going to have it off with this woman and a couple of goats?
  • By this time Irene was emitting a steady gurgle of contentment, when she wasn't laughing her head off.
  • If Hancock himself had been around, he would have doubtless squirmed as the audience laughed their heads off.
  • Joey stood in the door laughing his head off and Noreen peered over his shoulder, her hands over her mouth.
  • Louise: Ursula would have laughed her head off.
  • Old Warleigh would laugh his head off if I put reasons like that to him.
  • Then he tips her down and she's screaming her head off.
  • Tony races past, laughing his head off.
  • You were screaming your head off.
► be out of/off your head
  • A geek is a carnival performer who bites the heads off live chickens and snakes.
  • He had no right to bite the head off one of his staunchest friends.
  • I could have bitten her head off.
  • Just to bite their heads off.
  • Not two minutes in his company and she was biting his head off.
  • The gusts are becoming malevolent, snapping the heads off the waves like daisies.
  • This Katherine bites the heads off rag-dolls and threatens her sister Bianca with a pair of pinking shears.
  • You could trust him not to take the mickey, or to turn round and bite your head off.
► head something ↔ off► head somebody ↔ off
  • Ally's jealous that Matt and Ceara hit it off.
  • Billie had joined Lily and they had obviously hit it off.
  • Glad you and Edward have hit it off.
  • I think, in the end, they just didn't hit it off.
  • If two gardeners hit it off, they can go private through electronic messages in a sort of letter-writing setup.
  • Knowing both of them, I knew they would hit it off when they got to know one another better.
  • She and I hit it off immediately.
  • They hit it off from the first.
  • They ended up in the same case study group and hit it off immediately.
► hold somebody ↔ off
  • People will think they let Charmaine off the hook because she's a woman.
  • And he was at the heart of two of the double plays that got Johns off the hook.
  • And this time there is no second match to get anyone off the hook!
  • Apologising for ourselves Apologising and being self-deprecating can let you off the hook.
  • Home striker Paul Crimmen let them off the hook on a number of occasions and Horsham had two goals disallowed.
  • I emphasize the tense because Congress has the habit of letting itself off the hook when convenient.
  • It could even, in a pinch, get him off the hook for the nightly walk to the monument.
  • Why, she wondered, when she had effectively let him off the hook?
  • You could let them off the hook, or you could reel them in.
► leave/take the phone off the hook
  • The phone was ringing off the hook here all weekend.
  • People were queuing up for the new Harry Potter book to arrive - hot off the press.
► keep something ↔ off
  • And keep your hands off Maria.
  • But today with his mind too preoccupied to work he seemed quite unable to keep his hands off it.
  • Couldn't keep our hands off each other.
  • I could not keep my hands off them.
  • The government should keep its hands off content.
  • They had been unable to keep their hands off each other.
  • They should stay out where they belong - keep their hands off our people.
► keep (somebody) off something► keep off something► keep something ↔ off► kick somebody off something► out of kilter/off kilter► get your kit off
  • Cierra's performance knocked my socks off!
  • And yet the correlations just knock my socks off..
  • The current crop of non-Windows databases can knock the socks off their predecessors.
  • This in-your-face marketing could be forgiven if the food absolutely knocked your socks off.
► knock somebody off their pedestal/perch
  • It certainly knocks spots off anything attempted by the newly-Thatcherising Conservatives in the run-up to the 1979 election.
  • You kids, knock it off in there!
  • And, how was it, no, if they knocked it off.
  • I knocked it off as I ran past.
  • No, you didn't have to knock it off you had to choose thingies on a card.
  • The following day we could knock it off in few hours before returning to base.
► I’ll knock your head/block off
  • And I know Frank was knocked off.
  • By five he had knocked off most of the items on his priority list.
  • Everyone else appeared to have some sort of credit card that knocked off up to 25 percent.
  • In Newcastle residents would have £32 knocked off their £349 bill if the Government assessment of spending had been more accurate.
  • It took us some time to get to Kitumbeine and the district officer had knocked off.
  • Suppose I tell you the name of the guy who knocked off Mahoney.
  • Their run through the NCAAs last year, when they knocked off three No. 1 seeds, was no fluke.
  • What do you do with an evil one, who is knocking off the neighbors?
► knock something ↔ off► knock something ↔ off► knock something ↔ off► knock somebody ↔ off► knock something ↔ off► lay somebody ↔ off
  • An estimated 3 million workers have been laid off be-tween 1989 and 1995 as corporate profits have soared.
  • He and Dean had just been laid off during a seniority lapse because of a drastic reduction of crews.
  • He must lay off the kif.
  • The sort of business which flourished in the eighties but suffered in the recession hit nineties, laying off workers.
  • The station has laid off one-third of its staff.
  • Three years later, it reported its worst quarterly loss ever and laid off 16 percent of its work force.
  • We must lay off the booze even during Holy Communion.
  • We sought out people who had been laid off from large corporations and were forced to create new lives.
  • An estimated 3 million workers have been laid off be-tween 1989 and 1995 as corporate profits have soared.
  • He and Dean had just been laid off during a seniority lapse because of a drastic reduction of crews.
  • He must lay off the kif.
  • The sort of business which flourished in the eighties but suffered in the recession hit nineties, laying off workers.
  • The station has laid off one-third of its staff.
  • Three years later, it reported its worst quarterly loss ever and laid off 16 percent of its work force.
  • We must lay off the booze even during Holy Communion.
  • We sought out people who had been laid off from large corporations and were forced to create new lives.
► lay something ↔ off
  • Andy leads off up large, friable flakes, hair plastered to his head but now mercifully sheltered.
  • Bruins coach Steve Kasper led off.
  • He retired the first 12 men he faced before David Justice led off the fifth with a double.
  • Newman spotted the track leading off to the right and swung away from the main road.
  • On the first floor, leading off a covered balcony, were the chambers of the fellows and scholars.
  • Ramirez led off, and Mussina needed 13 pitches to strike him out.
  • The other came after his walk to lead off the ninth with the score tied at seven.
  • Then he violently shoved her down the small flight of stairs that led off their bedroom to the bathroom.
► leave somebody/something off (something)► let somebody off (something)► let something ↔ off► level something ↔ off/out
  • Significantly others have reacted with ambivalence: That exercise on support really took the lid off things in our school.
  • Tilda, unabashed, was out in the pantry, helping the ward orderlies take the lids off the supper trays.
  • I'm letting you off lightly this time, but next time you could end up in jail.
  • Bill Stubbly had got off lightly - so far.
  • But that doesn't mean that the person responsible should be allowed to get off lightly.
  • He'd got off lightly with the men earlier.
  • Mind you, Little Liz got off lightly.
  • Really she was getting off lightly with a few glasses of bleach.
  • Reno got off lightly compared to Curran.
  • You got off lightly in the alley tonight.
  • The basement was always off limits to us kids.
  • Consequently there is no topic that is off limits for discussion, even if a few are off limits for experimentation.
  • However; it was off limits for Robbie to hit or scratch his sister.
  • Nearly one-quarter of the land will be completely off limits to development.
  • People's reaction to loss remains one of society's least understood and most off limits topics for discussion.
  • Rumour has it that these are children with learning difficulties; off limits to our group of visiting helpers.
  • Social Security, 25 percent of all spending for other than interest on the debt, has been declared off limits.
  • Unlike most group discussions, nothing was off limits.
► it fell off the back of a lorry
  • Antonia, as the year pressed on, was gradually dropping off the map.
  • Augustine somehow resists every attempt to wipe it off the map.
  • But after only one spoonful, I could tell this stuff was off the map.
  • Eleven years ago, highway officials voted, in essence, to take Route 66 off the map.
  • Finally, he peeled the markers off the map, leaving it blank once more.
  • In El Salvador they've just had an earthquake, and whole towns were wiped off the map.
  • We're slipping off the map.
  • We had quite literally walked off the map.
► off the mark/wide of the mark
  • Salad crops, however, are quick off the mark.
  • This time, they were slow off the mark.
  • Not one of them is focused, on message or safe to be left alone with a computer.
  • So memories are made of spatiotemporal patterns like those on message boards.
  • But I think he's lovely, and you can tell a mile off that he likes you.
  • He's a hawkeye, and can spot one a mile off, like that faraway kestrel.
  • Our sportsdesk can spot from a mile off a person who can not tell an in-swinger from a bouncer.
  • At other times, the surroundings helped to take my mind off it.
  • I guess there is nothing that will get your mind off every-thing like golf will.
  • Instead they tried to take their minds off the poster campaign by providing weekend entertainment.
  • It takes your mind off how you feel.
  • Kirsty chattered excitedly throughout the journey, helping to keep Shiona's mind off her anxieties.
  • Letters could take my mind off most things.
  • To take his mind off his worries, I suggested that he wrote out a message for his family.
  • When the other guy thinks you are cheating, it can take his mind off the game.
► it/that is a load/weight off somebody’s mind
  • In synopsis the new play sounds rather like his best-known work, Noises Off.
  • Steve Cassidy hears the noises off.
► be off your nut► catch/throw somebody off-balance► off-off Broadway
  • I called on the off-chance that Patty might be home.
  • I just came on the off-chance.
  • I rang Otto on the off-chance.
  • I walked over to the wardrobe and opened the door just on the off-chance.
  • It was a long way to drive on the off-chance that something would come of it.
  • The card is too expensive on the off-chance I could get in an away game during the season.
  • There was no time to contact him, so I came on the off-chance.
► catch/take somebody off-guard
  • Much of the palace is off limits to the public.
  • The officer told the soldiers that the town was off limits.
  • Consequently there is no topic that is off limits for discussion, even if a few are off limits for experimentation.
  • However; it was off limits for Robbie to hit or scratch his sister.
  • Income from interest, dividends or profits from stock sales would be off limits.
  • Unlike most group discussions, nothing was off limits.
  • Mason works out everyday in the off-season.
  • Travel packages to Hawaii are dirt cheap during the off-season.
  • Parking is a problem but the parish council are working to get a proper car park to give off-street parking.
  • Without the creation of new off-street parking areas, this problem is likely to intensify.
  • It rained off and on for the whole afternoon.
  • A large blue diamond was flashing on and off.
  • After she had left the office, Wyatt sat and listened to the ventilator go on and off.
  • After studying accountancy at Chicago University, he worked on and off as an investment analyst.
  • My husband has suffered from heartburn on and off for years and has recently been diagnosed as having a hiatus hernia.
  • The spokeswoman says Disney has 50 to 70 toll-free numbers, which it turns on and off to coincide with special promotions.
  • Then we went for a walk, with him continually flying on and off my shoulder.
  • There are thousands of tax-paying jobs generated on and off the reservation.
  • With the other type switch on and off is non-automatic.
  • He wasn't interested in the heavy political stuff which bored the pants off most people.
  • It took ten minutes to reach Honey Cottage, with Yanto trying his best to scare the pants off Mary.
  • Lovely people who scared the pants off him.
  • The tests scare the pants off many managers.
  • Though, mind you, it scares the pants off poor old Crumwallis.
  • She beat the pants off me last time we played.
  • He is aware of his competitors-and he beats the pants off them.
► pass off well/badly etc
  • The agents managed to pass themselves off as wealthy businessmen.
  • They tried to pass the crystals off as diamonds.
  • Anyone trying to pass these absurdities off as fiction would have been laughed out of Hollywood.
  • As a childless wife can only suffer, there would be no point in passing an intersexual off as a woman.
  • But what more could you expect from the bunch of monkeys trying to pass themselves off as judges?
  • Equally, it is an offence for a private company to pass itself off as being a public company and viceversa.
  • I wonder how many years unqualified people could pass themselves off as consultant thoracic surgeons, for example, without detection.
  • This is the kind of thing a man who passes himself off as a fashion consultant can be expected to know.
  • Though the doubt is really an expression of not-being-committed, it passes itself off as an excuse for not-committing.
  • We could go in and pass ourselves off as invited guests by being brazen.
  • Like most politicians he had all his answers off pat, but he didn't have anything particularly new or interesting to say.
  • She only had to repeat the lines once or twice, and she'd have them down pat.
► pawn somebody/something ↔ off as something► pay something ↔ off► pay somebody ↔ off► pay somebody ↔ off► peel something ↔ off► peel off $20/£50 etc► piss somebody ↔ off► play off somebody/something► pull something ↔ off
  • Both of those editions were pulled off the racks by supermarket chains that had received complaints from customers.
  • I pulled off the road in the Lamar Valley at the trail to Crystal Bench and parked in mud.
  • Morland bosses say they've pulled off the escape of the decade Male speaker Even our staff backed us up.
  • Skill Oxton just failed to pull off victory at Hightown on a rain affected wicket.
  • We pulled off the sheets and untied the prisoner from the post.
  • Yet in February 1990 he pulled off one of cricket's all-time miracles.
► put something ↔ off► put somebody ↔ off
  • All the noise from the crowd put Alison off her game.
  • Don't let her put you off, it's a really good movie.
  • Seles couldn't concentrate on the game - the photographers were putting her off.
  • Stop staring at me, it's putting me off.
  • That weekend put me off camping for the rest of my life!
  • When she told me she worked in an abattoir it rather put me off her.
  • When you know an artist used to abuse his wife and children it does tend to put you off his work.
► put somebody off (something)► put somebody off (something)
  • Both of those editions were pulled off the racks by supermarket chains that had received complaints from customers.
  • Each time I said I liked one, this guy pulls it off the rack.
  • High ready-to-wear prices, but none the less gowns available off the rack.
  • What I hear you saying is that I have lived my life as if I bought my clothes off the rack.
  • But it was the news pages that had really gone off the rails.
  • Has something gone off the rails here?
  • Things started to go off the rails, however, with the Fiat Multipla.
  • Off the record, police officers are saying they are more and more unwilling to arrest those found in possession of small amounts of cannabis.
  • Officials, speaking off the record, said they were still worried about the situation.
  • Strictly off the record, my feeling is that we are going to lose the election.
  • I shaved and showered, clipping two seconds off the record, and was soon out on the highway heading for Faketown.
  • Nothing is off the record here.
  • Skaters and coaches will admit this, off the record.
  • The rest of the discussion, says Himmelstein, was off the record.
  • There is no off the record.
  • They said in 1976 that a tuned track could shave as much as 7 seconds off the record for the mile.
  • Well, I don't blame you, after ... All right: from here on you're totally off the record.
  • You want to be off the record?
  • I don't just want people to get their rocks off.
  • You're a rock group so people get their rocks off.
► be off your rocker► run something ↔ off► run somebody off something► run something ↔ off
  • Boyd seems to enjoy running off at the mouth to the press.
  • That never used to be a fault of his, running off at the mouth.
  • To what smug labors and running off at the mouth!
► run something ↔ off
  • And why should I try to throw you off the scent?
  • But he'd got to put Graham off the scent.
  • Or were they trying to put him off the scent?
  • That put them off the scent.
  • The aspirant towards a more spiritual way of life will be thrown entirely off the scent.
  • The father, be he absentee or abusive, gets off scot-free.
  • Beyond him, I could see the camp coming alive.
  • Birds, like planes, usually face into the wind, so they do not see the plane coming.
  • He looked up to see Norm coming down the driveway.
  • One of the man-things had seen them coming and shouted a warning.
  • Sarah Fleming saw them coming through the window of the front room.
  • She saw him coming and intended to give him a wide berth.
  • That Salvor Hardin had seen it coming made it none the more pleasant.
  • We were heading for the landing zone and could even see a chopper coming toward us.
► send something ↔ off
  • But in his next match he was sent off for twice attacking the goalie.
  • Damiano Tommasi paid for it minutes later when he was sent off for felling Robbie Fowler.
  • His nose was broken in two places by a player he had sent off for violent play.
  • Hull were reduced to 12 men on the hour when Mark Jones was sent off for throwing a punch at Gary Tees.
  • I see Chapman got sent off for Portsmouth.
  • Newbridge substitute Stuart Griffiths was also sent off for stamping against Pontypridd, just six minutes after coming on.
  • Some of these will be on the periodical shelves at your library and others you might want to send off for.
  • Then, Nutt the player appeared to make a retaliatory late tackle, and after being penalised was sent off for dissent.
► send somebody ↔ off► set something ↔ off► set something ↔ off► set something ↔ off► set something ↔ off► set somebody off► set something off against tax
  • All he did was shoot his mouth off a little.
  • So you can't shoot your mouth off.
► show something ↔ off► show something ↔ off► shut something ↔ off
  • He shuts himself off from his two young daughters and composes laments to his dead wife.
  • I shut myself off from the female race and channelled all my energy into my work.
  • Students who avoid learning even the basics can shut themselves off from important sources in the field.
  • These people are completely shut off from the rest of society.
  • Virginia and Peter Stillman were shut off from him now.
► sign somebody off► sign something ↔ off► it’s no skin off somebody’s nose
  • Diesels are condemned by some for being too slow off the mark.
  • This time, they were slow off the mark.
  • And yet the correlations just knock my socks off..
  • So, he popped down to my office, stuck this demo on the turntable and it just blew my socks off.
  • The current crop of non-Windows databases can knock the socks off their predecessors.
  • This in-your-face marketing could be forgiven if the food absolutely knocked your socks off.
► sod off► split something ↔ off► square something ↔ off► start something ↔ off► start somebody ↔ off► start somebody off
  • Recess is a good chance for kids to blow off steam.
  • It was recreation hour, explained Brother Andrew with a smile, and the Brothers were letting off steam.
  • Jody lets her blow off steam first.
  • Others have behavioural problems and need to let off steam in a safe and controlled setting.
  • She just needed to blow off steam.
  • So kicking the cat, biting a towel or pounding a pillow aren't really much use, except for letting off steam.
  • We let off steam in graffiti, vandalism and football hooliganism.
  • You got upset, blew off steam.
  • You want to let off steam?
  • Human experimenters have found it surprisingly difficult to put bats off their stride by playing loud artificial ultrasound at them.
  • Ancient law, it seems, was on their side; thousands were struck off, and more feared to be.
  • Do you want me to be struck off?
  • He was struck off in 1998, but still receives a National Health Service pension.
  • He was struck off the medical register for his pains.
  • In serious breaches of these codes, the professional can be struck off the professional register. 5.
  • Then her head was struck off and fixed on gallows and her body thrown into the pit.
► put somebody off their stroke
  • Donald absolutely swept me off my feet.
  • She's just waiting to be swept off her feet by a handsome stranger.
  • Then Peter came into my life and swept me off my feet.
► take something ↔ off► take something off (something)► take somebody ↔ off► talk the hind leg(s) off a donkey► talk somebody’s ear off
  • As for going off at tangents, my dear, I do it myself, hormone balance not withstanding.
  • Loretta's mind went off at a tangent.
► tear somebody off a strip/tear a strip off somebody► tee somebody off► tell somebody where to go/where to get off► give somebody a ticking off
  • A name which trips off the tongue.
  • Most have spent all their sentient life as paid-up devotees, and the glib phrases soon roll off the tongue.
  • ""How old is Chris?" "I don't know off the top of my head."
  • "Do you remember her name?" "Not off the top of my head."
  • "How much is the house worth?" "Off the top of my head, I'd say it's worth maybe $160,000."
  • There are some good restaurants around here, but I can't tell you their names off the top of my head.
  • I keep doing stuff off the top of my head.
  • In my imagination, I can lift off the top of my head, just like a lid.
  • It was all off the top of my head.
  • And the full bellows tongue is topped with Cambrelle covered padding.
  • Eaten raw in salads, it becomes more interesting if it is topped with herbs and a good quality olive oil.
  • Even the boldly striped mooring posts were topped with a dollop of white, rather like gaudy Cornetto ice-creams.
  • The compost is topped with a layer of pea gravel.
  • The wall was topped with rolls of barbed wire and jagged ends of glass stuck into the eight-foot concrete slabs.
  • Clarisa tossed it all off as fate.
  • When the brandy arrived, he filled a glass and tossed it off, in a gesture of childish defiance.
  • Clarisa tossed it all off as fate.
  • When the brandy arrived, he filled a glass and tossed it off, in a gesture of childish defiance.
  • Clarisa tossed it all off as fate.
  • When the brandy arrived, he filled a glass and tossed it off, in a gesture of childish defiance.
  • After debating, I decided that I should not get off the track.
  • I almost wet in my pants before I got off the track to relieve myself.
  • His name, "Roberto Carlos," just trips off the tongue.
  • A name which trips off the tongue.
  • I am sure some of the guys in my workshop think I am off my trolley.
  • Stuart Baxter must be off his trolley, sending some one like that.
► turn something ↔ off► turn something ↔ off
  • Organizers are considering turning off the air-conditioning for the event, or using it only sporadically.
  • Pulling up to a stop sign, she touches the clutch and the engine turns off.
  • She turned off the water and stepped out on to the rug, dried herself, and dressed in jeans and a shirt.
  • Summertime is a great time to turn off that computer and get outdoors.
  • Then he stepped out of the room, turning off his box.
  • There is no doubt that the ventilator may be turned off when in fact, the patient is already dead.
  • With a gun held at his head he was forced to turn off all the alarms.
► turn somebody ↔ off► turn somebody ↔ off► fall off the wagon► walk somebody off their feet► walk somebody’s legs off► walk something ↔ off
  • A reporter for the Wheeling Intelligencer had just walked off the structure when the catastrophe occurred.
  • Emotionlessly she kissed me in the vineyard and walked off down the row.
  • He walked off disconsolate: he knew he had played well enough to win and had not.
  • It makes the software easier to display and harder to walk off with.
  • Stewart walked off with the look of one who was the sole survivor of a particularly nasty plane crash.
  • The sergeant was tempted to walk off but did not.
  • We had quite literally walked off the map.
  • When he walked off towards the car park Henry didn't bother following.
  • A Whitney Houston tape echoed off the walls.
  • Before I could grasp what was happening, I had bounced off the wall and was crumpling on to the floor in pain.
  • I jumped down off the wall and joined my sister who was standing behind them listening.
  • The husband tried to seize a portrait of her, an oil painting, rip it right off the wall.
  • The noise of conversation from the hall below bounced off the walls around them.
  • There's a woman just up the road so I hop off the wall and run after her.
► warn somebody ↔ off► warn somebody off (doing) something► wash something ↔ off► like water off a duck’s back
  • After the novelty wears off, the Internet can be a very dull place.
  • Once the novelty has worn off, most of these kitchen gadgets just sit in the cupboard, unused for years.
  • But as time wears on, the novelty wears off and dissatisfaction results.
  • Maybe Antonietta herself will tire of me when the novelty wears off.
  • Come in, take the weight off your feet.
  • Make the bed - then you can lie down and take the weight off your feet while we talk.
► be well-off for something► you don’t know when you’re well-off► the wheels come off something
  • I'd like to wipe that stupid grin off your face.
► wipe something off the face of the earth/wipe something off the map
  • I work my butt off for you, while that restaurant is doing worse and worse.
  • I worked my butt off in basketball and stayed on the varsity-in fact, did well.
  • I had to give the ball up, and then I had work my butt off to get it back.
  • In short, I worked my butt off.
  • Meanwhile, Inspiral Carpets went in at grass roots level and worked their butts off in the clubs.
  • You could have worked your butt off helping a rep and you finally got the rep doing everything right.
  • Alec Davidson, for example, was one of those who came off worst.
► take the wraps off something► write somebody/something ↔ off► write something ↔ off► write something ↔ off► write something ↔ off
  • We just got off on the wrong foot the other day.
  • Unfortunately, Pope got off on the wrong foot with his new troops.
  • We got off on the wrong foot the other day and it was my fault.
► put years on somebody/take years off somebody
1off day/week etc a day, week etc when you are not doing something as well as you usually do:  Brian never usually loses his temper – he must be having an off day.2off period/season etc a period or season which is not as busy as other times of the year:  In the off season, there’s hardly anyone staying at the hotel.3 British English used to talk about a pair of things such as wheels on a car, to mean the one on the right OPP  near
off1 adverb, preposition, adjectiveoff2 adjectiveoff3 nounoff4 verb
offoff3 noun British English Collocations
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
(=stop giving aid)· The US has threatened to cut off aid to the region.· Conditons deteriorated further as western aid was withdrawn.
(=make it start ringing)· A window blew open, setting off the alarm.
(also an alarm sounds formal)· The thieves fled when an alarm went off.
· I entered the shop and switched off the alarm.
(=end it)· The Athenians broke off the alliance with Sparta and made alliances with Argos and Thessaly.
 Do me a favour and get off my back!
· The blow was hard enough to knock him off balance.
 Simpson came off the bench to play in midfield.
(=used to give advice or an opinion) He’d be better off starting with something simpler.
· I got on my bicycle and cycled over to Rob’s house.
· He got off his bike and walked with her for a while.
· Forty people were injured when the bomb exploded.· A 200 pound bomb went off in the car park.
(also detonate a bomb formal) (=make a bomb explode)· The area was cleared and the police safely detonated the bomb.
 She was booed off stage (=they shouted ‘boo’ until she left the stage).
· In the end she decided to break their engagement.
 They are getting browned off by the situation.
 She gave him the brush-off.
 I tried to be friendly but I just got the brush-off.
(=hits something and moves away from it again)· The bullet ricocheted off a wall.
· Several more passengers got on the bus.
· A button has come off my skirt.
(=use up the calories you have eaten)· Even walking will help you to burn up calories.
· He opened the door, took off his cap, and threw it on a hook.
· The police car drove off at top speed.
(=starts to be successful)· His career took off and he started making a lot of money.
 I turned on the heater in the hall to take the chill off the house (=to heat it slightly).
(=used to tell someone angrily to go away)
(=rings at a particular time)· What time do you want the alarm clock to go off tomorrow?
· She took off her clothes and slipped into bed.
· A group of tourists were getting on the coach.
· She took off her coat and went into the kitchen.
 The performance on the first night came off pretty well.
 His family were comfortably off (=fairly rich).
· She beat off competition from dozens of other candidates to get the job.
(=stop using a computer system that requires a password)
· Always switch off your computer at the end of the day.
(=cause it)· The new rules are likely to spark more controversy.
 He was taken off the critical list and is now in a stable condition.
(=the date etc when you stop doing something) The cut-off date for registration is July 2.
 I’m taking a few days off before the wedding.
(=pay the money back)· The first thing I'm going to do is pay off my debts.
(=say officially that it does not have to be paid)· The bank finally agreed to write off the debt.
(=far away from where you are, and exciting)· The company arranges tours to exotic destinations such as Nepal.
(=write asking for information)· Why don't you send for details of the course?
· Wash the dirt off those boots before you come in.
 He felt himself drifting off to sleep.
(=stop taking drugs permanently)· It was years before I was able to come off drugs.
(=very easy)
(=gradually stops)· The effect of the anaesthetic was beginning to wear off.
(=stop the supply of electricity)· You risk having your electricity cut off if you fail to pay the bill.
informal (=send it quickly, especially because you are angry about something)· I fired off an email to the hotel, saying how disgusted I was with their level of service.
(=stop employing them because there is no work for them to do)· Unions fear that many part-time employees will be laid off.
(=suddenly end it)· Were you surprised when Toni broke off your engagement?
· Maggie pulled over and switched off the engine.
(=it gradually becomes less)· The initial excitement of my new job was starting to wear off.
· Take the next exit, junction 15.
(also embark on an expedition formal) (=leave at the start of an expedition)· Trent set off on an expedition to collect plants with fellow botanical students.
(=cause an explosion)· Investigators believe a fuel leak may have triggered the explosion.
(=close to being correct) I guessed it would cost $100 and it was $110, so I was not far out.
 visitors from a far-off land far-off galaxies
 We were in the middle of an exam when the fire alarm went off.
 Someone set off the fire alarm.
 Jeff and David were in the back yard setting off fireworks.
 Red warning lights flashed on and off (=shone for a short time and then stopped shining).
· She’d just got off a flight from Buenos Aires.
 The appeal has got off to a flying start, with over £200,000 raised in the first week.
British English (=not want to eat)· The baby is off his food.
British English (=to stop wanting to eat)· Since becoming ill, he has gone off his food.
(=succeeds)· She gave up a career in law to become an actor, but the gamble has paid off.
British English (=played to decide the winner after a previous game ended with both teams having equal points)
 What time do you get off work?
 I went to bed but couldn’t get off to sleep.
· Elsie took off her glasses and rubbed her eyes.
 The injury to Keane took the gloss off Manchester United’s victory.
· Mr Brownlow took off his gloves.
 I’d just gone off to sleep when the phone rang.
 a hands-off style of management
 The government has a hands-off approach to the industry.
· We turn the heating off before bed.
· The heating goes off automatically when the room is warm enough.
 She stormed out in a huff.
· I scraped the ice off the car windscreen.
(=discuss each other’s ideas and think of good new ones)· Our regular meetings are opportunities to fire ideas off each other.
(=cause it to happen suddenly)· It is claimed that the police provoked the incident.
(also embark on a journey formal) (=start a long journey)· Before setting off on a journey, look at maps and guidebooks.
 I think it might kick off in here with all these football fans around.
 Do you want to knock off early today?
 We usually knock off work at about twelve on Saturday.
· One of the builders fell off a ladder and broke his leg.
· He switched off the lamp beside the bed.
(=laugh a lot)· The audience laughed its head off all the way through.
(=continue something that has stopped for a short time) Barry took up the story where Justine had left off.
(=allow someone to escape punishment or criticism) He’d decided to make Sandra wait before letting her off the hook.
(=give someone a less serious punishment than they deserve) I think young criminals are let off far too lightly.
 I wished he would just get off the line.
 Most people in the countryside live off the land (=live by growing or finding their own food).
 Knowing he was safe was a load off my mind (=I felt less worried).
(=give back the money you borrowed, usually over a period of time)· You can repay the loan early without a penalty.
· Is the tape machine switched off?
(also remove make-up formal)· Take off eye make-up gently, using a cotton ball.
· I can’t get this dirty mark to come out.
(=it starts)· The match kicks off at 3.30 pm.
(=stop taking a medication)· Coming off the medication made him more aggressive.
 Want a game? It might take your mind off things.
 when Hubbard shuffled off this mortal coil (=died)
(=finish paying all the money you owe)· They paid off their mortgage five years early.
· We got on the motorway near Watford.
(=leave the motorway)· We forgot to turn off the motorway and ended up in London.
(=take off a baby's nappy)· Come on, let's take this dirty nappy off.
(=stop them)· The two companies have broken off negotiations on the deal.
(=something stops seeming new and interesting)· Once the novelty had worn off he didn't play with his train set much.
 The sudden movement of the ship knocked them both off balance.
 Telephone charges are lower during off-peak periods.
 an off-road vehicle
 It’s yours for a one-off payment of only £200.
(=be very noticeable)· One mistake jumped off the page.
(=take most of the paint off a surface using a tool)· Scrape off any loose or flaking paint and rub the surface with sandpaper.
· The bus stopped and half the passengers got off.
(=it cannot be used because it is not connected or is already being used)· On Friday nights we just take the phone off the hook and relax.
 We’ll meet again in the morning and we can pick up where we left off.
 You get really pissed off applying for jobs all the time.
(=goes into the air)· The flight attendants served drinks shortly after the plane took off.
· Would he ever see her again after they got off the plane?
 The two musicians played off each other in a piece of inspired improvisation.
 a young singer who was tragically cut off in her prime (=died while she was in her prime)
(=cause them)· The arrests sparked off violent street protests.
(also emit radiation formal) (=produce it)· The lamps emit ultra-violet radiation.
· You can turn the radio off, darling, we're not listening to it.
(=it starts to rain less)· The rain should ease off in a minute.
 They missed the off-ramp to Manhattan.
· After the incident, Croatia broke off all relations with Serbia.
· She was very upset when I ended the relationship.
(=happening sometimes and not at other times)· Their on–off relationship seemed to have come to an end two years ago.
 He goes off on a riff about the problems of being middle-aged.
 I could tell right off that something was wrong.
American English (=immediately, without having to think carefully) Kay answered right off the bat.
(=make it start)· The incident sparked off a riot which lasted for three days.
 I’ve been rushed off my feet (=extremely busy) all day.
informal (=scare someone very much)
(=scream a lot)· At least the idiot wasn’t panicking and screaming his head off.
· They called off the search when it got dark.
(=lose a game or competition, or not be as successful as someone else)
 The department gave Tom a send-off he won’t forget!
· They took off their shoes in the hallway.
(=put them on or take them off quickly or gently)· She slipped off her shoes and curled her feet up under her on the sofa.
(=take them off by moving your legs)· Maria kicked off her shoes and sat down.
 The robbers were armed with sawn-off shotguns (=ones that have been made shorter, so the balls go in different directions).
British English, be out sick American English (=be away from work or school because you are ill)· Half my staff were off sick.
 For the last month, she has been signed off sick from work.
(=start sleeping, especially without meaning to)· She’d drifted off to sleep on the sofa.
(=produce a smell)· Rubber gives off a strong smell when it is burned.
· My feet got so hot and sweaty I took my trainers and socks off.
· I came off stage last night and just collapsed in a heap.
(=leave the stage, especially before you should)· The pianist walked off the stage after playing only a few notes.
· On your first day at work, you want to get off to a good start.
 She brought some fruit on the journey to stave off hunger.
(=decide not to continue with it)· The strike was called off two days later.
(=not talk about it)· I knew he was trying to avoid the subject of drugs.· She hoped that Anna would keep off the subject of Luke for the next few hours.
(=make them talk about something else)· It was difficult to get him off the subject of cars.
· I couldn’t find the on-off switch.
 Mimi became jealous when Jack’s career started taking off.
 I rang my boss and arranged to take some time off.
 Dad took the day off to come with me.
· I forgot to turn the tap off.
· I switched off the television and went to bed.
(=become trapped as the sea rises)· Two anglers had to be rescued after getting cut off by the tide.
· He got off the train at Flushing.
 Mark turned off the highway and into Provincetown.
(=disappear so that no sign remains) The youngster vanished without a trace one day and has never been found.
 The plane veered off course.
(=win when it is difficult)· Martin pulled off a surprise victory in the semi-final.
(=becomes quieter until you cannot hear it)· ‘It's just that … ’, his voice trailed away uncertainly.
(=go for a walk so that your stomach feels less full)
(=turn a tap to stop water coming out of pipes or to let it come out)· Turn the water off while you're brushing your teeth.
(=become or stay thinner)· I changed my eating habits so I’d keep the weight off.
 Many pensioners are less well-off (=have less money) than they used to be.
(=win when it is difficult to win)· The side has pulled off two excellent wins in the past couple of weeks.
 Brenda jumped in the car and zoomed off.
Phrases
PHRASES FROM THE ENTRY► the off
  • Jardine said Larwood brought the call back from the off side.
  • Now she knew that Fernando was in contact with Maria Luisa and probably had been right from the off.
  • That evening, they met the men at eight o'clock, all parties quite well oiled from the off.
  • Yes, it was just one of those days when Belmont's name was on the cup right from the off.
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
  • We'll be on air in about three minutes.
  • Broadcasting via a system of street loudspeakers the radio is on the air for three hours each Sunday.
  • By this standard, half the sitcoms would be off the air.
  • Gillroy could no longer raise Darwin, and Koepang seemed to be off the air.
  • If left-wing radio talk show hosts got higher ratings, the right-wing hosts would be off the air.
  • Ministers that were on the air selling prayer cloths.
  • Sue was talking as they went, describing the scene, and Kathleen realised they were on air live again.
  • The Channel 5 licence is expected to be awarded in early November and be on air at the latest in 1995.
  • They're under a lot of pressure because they have to be on air 24 hours.
► get off your arse
  • Electioneering, he had talked tough about getting government off the backs of the people.
  • Even if that had happened, it didn't justify the violence of Steen's attempts to get Jacqui off his back.
  • He had a chance now to tell on Lee, to get him off his back, out of Jubilee Wood.
  • Ian denies all but tells them about Mel sleeping with Phil to get them off his back.
  • It would have been a good excuse to use to get Mr Parnham off his back.
  • Maybe he figured the only way to get her off his back was to confess.
  • She got the revolver off the back seat and put it into the glove compartment with the cartridges.
  • Sitting there, day in, day out, hardly able to get off his backside.
  • They should get off their backsides and let us see what they intend to do about it.
► badly off for something
  • A badly packed rucksack can easily throw you off balance.
  • And despite what he'd said, less a token of affection than a means of throwing her off balance.
  • But before Adamowski could get his campaign under way, Daley threw him off balance by going on the offensive.
  • He had an authority, an abrupt decisiveness, that caught me off balance.
  • It throws the viewer off balance but speaks to the part of each person that is capable, potent and dignified.
  • She has a problem with some little gland or other, which can throw her right off balance.
  • The movement threw him off balance.
  • Waking up to that penetrating ice-blue gaze was enough to throw anyone off balance for the rest of the day.
► be off base
  • He had made the most ancient blunder in the business quite off his own bat.
  • Instead, off her own bat, the girl went to see a solicitor in Newton Abbott, Devon.
  • I asked him to help, and he said yes right off the bat.
  • At least not right off the bat.
► off beam► beat somebody/something ↔ off
  • Appenzell really is off the beaten track.
  • Away from the Algarve, it's not hard to get off the beaten track.
  • Soon it is not going to be so easy to get off the beaten path.
  • They are off the beaten track.
  • To say that Crenshaw is off the beaten path is an understatement.
  • Unusual interests, off the beaten track experiences should be of interest.
  • We kept off the beaten track, away from those traders who fixed high prices, for Shallot knew where to go.
  • Yet for most visitors from overseas, Windisch with its treasure is definitely off the beaten track.
  • Many kids who leave home to live alone find they have bitten off more than they can chew.
  • Her book has blown the lid off the Reagan years.
  • You gave instructions that I would be the one to blow the lid off.
  • Depressed, he blows his head off.
  • He held a loaded air pistol to her stepfather's neck and threatened to blow his head off.
  • If I ever get you alone, I am going to blow your head off.
  • It would come in a box and it would blow your head off.
  • She also told the court that he'd heard he'd threatened to blow his head off.
  • Then he saw himself tripping over the gun and blowing his head off.
  • I went jogging to blow off some steam.
  • Jody lets her blow off steam first.
  • She just needed to blow off steam.
  • You got upset, blew off steam.
  • Even extortion has gone off the boil.
  • I knew as soon as I wrote it down I'd go off the boil.
  • Now it appears to have gone off the boil.
  • The second series really went off the boil because there was much more emphasis on the woman lawyer.
  • We're letting the kettle go off the boil.
  • As they are quite tiny, quail are most often savored by nibbling the juicy meat right off the bone.
  • Roast in preheated oven until the meat falls off the bone easily, 2 / 2 to 3 hours.
  • He bounced ideas off colleagues everywhere he went, and they were greeted with enthusiasm.
  • Is there some one I can bounce ideas off?
  • They can bounce ideas off one another and provide a mutual critique or one another's work.
  • We could bounce ideas off each other and share problems.
  • You can bounce ideas off them and benefit from their expertise, as they have often been self-employed themselves.
► break something ↔ off
  • But the results of the Christmas consumer test will give new heart to anyone browned off by the festive ripoff syndrome.
  • Outside, some kids, browned off with the phone-booth, had snapped a sapling rowan in half.
  • He took a beating today but he played his butt off.
  • I had to give the ball up, and then I had work my butt off to get it back.
  • I work my butt off for you, while that restaurant is doing worse and worse.
  • I worked my butt off in basketball and stayed on the varsity-in fact, did well.
  • In short, I worked my butt off.
  • Meanwhile, Inspiral Carpets went in at grass roots level and worked their butts off in the clubs.
  • You could have worked your butt off helping a rep and you finally got the rep doing everything right.
► buy off-plan► buzz off!
  • I had a terrible day at work, and to cap it all off I got a flat tire.
  • And to cap it all off, when she was tied-up she couldn't run backwards, so she lay down instead!
  • And to cap it all she could feel the ominous beginnings of a thundering headache.
  • And to cap it all, the bland sleazy boredom of it all.
  • And, to cap it all, Wimbledon won the Cup.
  • OK, OK, just get off my case, will you?
► cast somebody/something ↔ off
  • My pregnancy caught us by surprise, but we're happy about it.
  • The public's reaction obviously caught the governor off guard.
  • I keep all of my old clothes on the off chance that they might come back into fashion.
  • I asked him on the off chance.
  • Much effort went into tracing remote family connections abroad on the off chance of identifying a benefactor.
  • She thought of ringing him on the off chance of catching him at the flat, but shelved the possibility as unlikely.
  • People are able to get things off their chest in these meetings.
  • "That daughter of yours has a great sense of humour." "Yes, I like to think she's a chip off the old block!"
► chuck yourself off something
  • Bruce went to the doctor, feeling a little off colour, and was told that he had anaemia.
  • I'm fine, thank you, but Elinor's a bit off colour at the moment.
  • Although Vinny Samways has now come off the transfer list, Spurs look light in the key area.
  • Closer Ugueth Urbina is coming off elbow surgery.
  • Davis, coming off an all-pro year, wants to get as much money as he can.
  • Dehere was also coming off a 1-for-14 performance against Boston in the previous game.
  • Goering's second flight had also not come off.
  • If it comes off once a season it is worth it.
  • Look, after coming off tour I've just got no f-ing politics, religion, anything.
  • Although Vinny Samways has now come off the transfer list, Spurs look light in the key area.
  • Closer Ugueth Urbina is coming off elbow surgery.
  • Davis, coming off an all-pro year, wants to get as much money as he can.
  • Dehere was also coming off a 1-for-14 performance against Boston in the previous game.
  • Goering's second flight had also not come off.
  • If it comes off once a season it is worth it.
  • Look, after coming off tour I've just got no f-ing politics, religion, anything.
  • Although Vinny Samways has now come off the transfer list, Spurs look light in the key area.
  • Closer Ugueth Urbina is coming off elbow surgery.
  • Davis, coming off an all-pro year, wants to get as much money as he can.
  • Dehere was also coming off a 1-for-14 performance against Boston in the previous game.
  • Goering's second flight had also not come off.
  • If it comes off once a season it is worth it.
  • Look, after coming off tour I've just got no f-ing politics, religion, anything.
  • Alec Davidson, for example, was one of those who came off worst.
  • Bullock comes off best because her complaining seems so valid.
  • His foster-child comes off best, but in addition each of two nurses receives a tenth of his estate.
  • It may seem, so far, that in terms of clearly defined benefits, the client comes off best out of the deal.
  • Prior to that Meath had come off best when they accounted for Down in the 1990 league decider.
  • The lightning, it seemed to Lydia, had undoubtedly come off best in that encounter.
  • The problem is that history sometimes comes off better.
  • Oh, come off it, George. Sheila wouldn't do that.
► cut something ↔ off► cut something ↔ off
  • I don't know what happened - we just got cut off.
  • But my time on the Internet can range from only a few minutes to several hours before I get cut off.
  • Hi I was looking for Carolyn I think I got cut off.
  • Accessible only by air, the town is cut off from the rest of the country.
  • His main source of strength was cut off as was their mutual ability to deal realistically with the problems.
  • I am cut off at the waist for ever.
  • If he did, and the news reached the States, the money would be cut off immediately.
  • Sometimes the sea is so rough that the islands are cut off from the mainland for weeks at a time.
  • The consequences of this dependence were seen when the flow was cut off so abruptly after 1982.
  • We appear to be cut off and the look of the whole area is old fashioned.
  • When the tops of the posts are cut off, they will be level with the tops of the beams.
► cut somebody ↔ off
  • But, says the bank, countries that have cut themselves off from the global economy have slipped behind.
  • I have been so hungry that I have cut the blood off from crackers and eaten them.
  • I slid Lewis's helmet on and cut myself off from the world.
  • It turned the party in on itself and cut it off from the wider society.
  • The denial of tenderness cuts them off from communication with wives and children.
  • The inadequacy of communications cut Nice off from its hinterland, and condemned the entire county to poverty.
  • Yet these four were all we had to cut us off from the rest of the hall.
  • You cut yourself off from other people and from your true feelings.
► cut somebody ↔ off
  • If you love him, ask him to stay. Otherwise you'll be cutting off your nose to spite your face.
► dash something ↔ off
  • His work isn't usually this bad - he must have had an off day.
  • They must now get a result against free scoring Glenavon next Saturday and hope Bangor have an off day at Comrades.
  • You will have off days when you are tired or a bit under the weather.
► go off at the deep end► drive somebody ↔ off► drop somebody/something ↔ off
  • Boncoeur was on duty at the switchboard.
  • The night shift goes off duty at six a.m.
  • A skeleton staff was on duty to keep the world-wide operations of Royalbion ticking over.
  • Although she loved her work, never before had she wished to be on duty on a day off.
  • But it is believed he was off duty when the telex was sent.
  • Chapman, Detective Steve Kring was on duty that day.
  • He was on duty when his wife-to-be left her military hospital and was put on a troopship for home.
  • It makes no difference which girl is on duty.
  • She was off duty and I didn't call her.
  • The night security man would be on duty.
► ease off on somebody
  • You got off pretty easy if you only had to pay a $33 fine.
  • Newbill got off easy, but he was about the only one.
  • Rich celebrities are allowed to hire good lawyers and get off easy.
  • As you can perhaps appreciate, this rather took the edge off my initial delight.
  • But it takes the edge off the pain.
  • He had decisively taken the edge off trade union power.
  • Moneylarge sums of money-can take the edge off an ambitious person.
  • The burning wood takes the edge off the morning cold, and it helps brew our coffee.
  • The sun was warm on my back, but the south-easterly wind took the edge off the stifling heat.
  • This will take the edge off your anxiety.
  • This would certainly take the edge off the impending Apollo lunar landing.
► eff off!► can’t take your eyes off somebody/something► disappear/vanish from/off the face of the earth
  • A woman had fallen off and broken her pelvis.
  • Any crumbs which fell off the table were pounced on by big bronze lizards - skinks.
  • Apply moleskin or a Band-Aid and leave in place until it falls off naturally in bath or shower.
  • In those days, the sweat would fall off my hands and I'd hear it hitting the floor.
  • Keep the napkin square on your lap or it will fall off, and you may not drop anything on the floor.
  • The railing on the porch looks like it is going to fall off.
  • There were other dangers besides falling off the branch.
  • Too easy to fall off and be dragged around by the heel.
► somebody nearly/almost fell off their chair► it’s as easy as falling off a log► live off the fat of the land► finish something ↔ off► finish something ↔ off► finish somebody/something ↔ off► finish somebody ↔ off
  • Well, first off, I want to know what you've done with the money I gave you.
► send somebody off with a flea in their ear
  • Linda called me back and apologized for flying off the handle.
  • He just flew off the handle.
  • If last night hadn't happened, would she still have flown off the handle, sooner or later ...?
  • Lila flew off the handle and she realizes that.
  • Some people always fly off the handle, and often their anger is totally out of proportion to the problem in hand.
  • It was a relief to get off my feet for a while.
  • The doctor told me to stay off my feet for a few days.
  • But the stories never swept the reading public off its feet the way the Sherlock Holmes tales did.
  • He kind of swept me off my feet.
  • He was in livery, and told me he was rushed off his feet.
  • The boys aim only to get one over on the girls while the girls dream of being romantically swept off their feet.
  • They have not, therefore, been swept off their feet.
  • They placed a lavatory chain around his neck and hoisted him off his feet.
  • We were rushed off our feet yesterday.
► knock/lift etc somebody off their feet
  • All the sales assistants are run off their feet. The shop ought to take on more staff.
  • It's my son's birthday party tomorrow. I've been absolutely rushed off my feet getting ready for it.
  • Bus managers were expecting to be rushed off their feet.
  • He was in livery, and told me he was rushed off his feet.
  • Obviously, the emergency services are run off their feet.
  • There had been lots of problems, and they were rushed off their feet.
  • We were rushed off our feet yesterday.
► start/get off on the wrong/right foot
  • After 50yds fork right on to a track which climbs up Triscombe Combe.
  • At the first fork they must go left and at the next fork right and so on until they were challenged.
  • Then with a wave she forked left and was gone.
  • Bournemouth hopefully won't get off the floor.
  • He meant to get off, I think, but was petrified.
  • Not only do we punish those who get off welfare, we require little of those who stay on.
  • Now there was a solution, that is, if it ever got off the drawing board.
  • Oh yes, they're very good at theory but no bloody good at getting off their bums and looking for themselves!
  • Perhaps he could get off the hook by saying he would go in the morning?
  • We got to get off this here hill.
  • I'll get this off to you first thing in the morning.
  • She managed to get all the letters off before five o'clock.
  • And I said, well, but do they get it off?
  • Firms with shorter names like Boeing do not get chopped off.
  • He then got up off the floor and threatened to hit the labour master with his boots in his hand.
  • I see Chapman got sent off for Portsmouth.
  • Nathan gets and goes off in search of somewhere quiet, clutching a toilet roll and anxious anticipations.
  • Pick your head up to look too far down the road and get it lopped off.
  • Sometimes, a few cues from Deborah got them off and running.
  • To climb back into the presidential race, he must get abortion off the agenda.
  • And I said, well, but do they get it off?
  • Firms with shorter names like Boeing do not get chopped off.
  • He then got up off the floor and threatened to hit the labour master with his boots in his hand.
  • I see Chapman got sent off for Portsmouth.
  • Nathan gets and goes off in search of somewhere quiet, clutching a toilet roll and anxious anticipations.
  • Pick your head up to look too far down the road and get it lopped off.
  • Sometimes, a few cues from Deborah got them off and running.
  • To climb back into the presidential race, he must get abortion off the agenda.
  • And I said, well, but do they get it off?
  • Firms with shorter names like Boeing do not get chopped off.
  • He then got up off the floor and threatened to hit the labour master with his boots in his hand.
  • I see Chapman got sent off for Portsmouth.
  • Nathan gets and goes off in search of somewhere quiet, clutching a toilet roll and anxious anticipations.
  • Pick your head up to look too far down the road and get it lopped off.
  • Sometimes, a few cues from Deborah got them off and running.
  • To climb back into the presidential race, he must get abortion off the agenda.
  • And I said, well, but do they get it off?
  • Firms with shorter names like Boeing do not get chopped off.
  • He then got up off the floor and threatened to hit the labour master with his boots in his hand.
  • I see Chapman got sent off for Portsmouth.
  • Nathan gets and goes off in search of somewhere quiet, clutching a toilet roll and anxious anticipations.
  • Pick your head up to look too far down the road and get it lopped off.
  • Sometimes, a few cues from Deborah got them off and running.
  • To climb back into the presidential race, he must get abortion off the agenda.
► get off to a good/bad etc start
  • Bournemouth hopefully won't get off the floor.
  • He meant to get off, I think, but was petrified.
  • However, when at last she got off he was nowhere to be seen, and she felt another thrill of triumph.
  • Not only do we punish those who get off welfare, we require little of those who stay on.
  • Now there was a solution, that is, if it ever got off the drawing board.
  • Oh yes, they're very good at theory but no bloody good at getting off their bums and looking for themselves!
  • Perhaps he could get off the hook by saying he would go in the morning?
  • Bournemouth hopefully won't get off the floor.
  • He meant to get off, I think, but was petrified.
  • However, when at last she got off he was nowhere to be seen, and she felt another thrill of triumph.
  • Not only do we punish those who get off welfare, we require little of those who stay on.
  • Now there was a solution, that is, if it ever got off the drawing board.
  • Oh yes, they're very good at theory but no bloody good at getting off their bums and looking for themselves!
  • Perhaps he could get off the hook by saying he would go in the morning?
  • We got to get off this here hill.
  • "Did you give him the money?" "No, I told him where to get off."
► get off your butt/ass
  • Now though, the gloves are off.
  • As Mike moved towards my table the two children left him, going off across the terrace in different directions.
  • He was a miner and he went off to the First World War and got killed.
  • My great-grandparents were aghast at the idea of a married woman, with a child, going off to school.
  • Ramsay went off to try to recruit more men in his part of Lothian.
  • Remi was gone off in the dark to get another box.
  • She had just put him inside her when all of a sudden the music got louder and those cannons started going off.
  • The female sits inside the nest while the male goes off collecting nest material.
  • The referee then went off the field to consult an officer at the touchline who waved us off the pitch.
► go off well/badly etc► go off on one
  • Construction of the theme park never got off the ground.
  • And the guerrilla strategy for influencing senior partners never got off the ground.
  • But it has taken the project some time to get off the ground.
  • He's been trying to get off the ground since the mid-60s.
  • He laughed, because I was still to get off the ground.
  • High-definition television, still getting off the ground, is sharper but still too poor for text.
  • It never got off the ground.
  • One Tucson businessman announced that he was organizing such an effort in early 1995, but it never got off the ground.
  • The group was slow to get off the ground, despite an encouraging article about the group in the Rotherham Advertiser.
  • Could the upper management of a leading firm like Merrill Lynch be caught so entirely off guard?
  • I said it suddenly like that, just blurted it out, and I guess it caught him off guard.
  • Penelope flinched, angry at her thoughts, and at the girl who had caught her off guard.
  • She really caught me off guard with her comments.
  • The president faces issues that can catch him off guard and undermine his authority.
  • The question caught Firebug off guard.
  • The words caught him off guard.
  • This caught me completely off guard.
► go off half cocked
  • Hands off my coat!
  • Get your hands off my car!
  • And hands off ... workers anger at factory ban on rings.
  • Couldn't keep our hands off each other.
  • I can't keep my damned hands off you!
  • I could not keep my hands off them.
  • The government should keep its hands off content.
  • They had been unable to keep their hands off each other.
  • They should stay out where they belong - keep their hands off our people.
  • As if now I know it will soon be off my hands time has started to move forward again.
  • Other men's wives did proper jobs once the children were off their hands.
  • Those two girls will soon be off his hands.
  • I take my hat off to those front row men.
  • Jan starts hers at four, for which I take my hat off to her.
  • Whatever it was though, I take my hat off to Babs.
► haul off and hit/punch/kick somebody
  • Also I don't want him to try to have it off with some one else.
  • Dave Mellor did not have it away with that repellent tart.
  • Rush round here every Wednesday afternoon, have it off with Angy and rush back.
  • Was I going to have it off with this woman and a couple of goats?
  • By this time Irene was emitting a steady gurgle of contentment, when she wasn't laughing her head off.
  • If Hancock himself had been around, he would have doubtless squirmed as the audience laughed their heads off.
  • Joey stood in the door laughing his head off and Noreen peered over his shoulder, her hands over her mouth.
  • Louise: Ursula would have laughed her head off.
  • Old Warleigh would laugh his head off if I put reasons like that to him.
  • Then he tips her down and she's screaming her head off.
  • Tony races past, laughing his head off.
  • You were screaming your head off.
► be out of/off your head
  • A geek is a carnival performer who bites the heads off live chickens and snakes.
  • He had no right to bite the head off one of his staunchest friends.
  • I could have bitten her head off.
  • Just to bite their heads off.
  • Not two minutes in his company and she was biting his head off.
  • The gusts are becoming malevolent, snapping the heads off the waves like daisies.
  • This Katherine bites the heads off rag-dolls and threatens her sister Bianca with a pair of pinking shears.
  • You could trust him not to take the mickey, or to turn round and bite your head off.
► head something ↔ off► head somebody ↔ off
  • Ally's jealous that Matt and Ceara hit it off.
  • Billie had joined Lily and they had obviously hit it off.
  • Glad you and Edward have hit it off.
  • I think, in the end, they just didn't hit it off.
  • If two gardeners hit it off, they can go private through electronic messages in a sort of letter-writing setup.
  • Knowing both of them, I knew they would hit it off when they got to know one another better.
  • She and I hit it off immediately.
  • They hit it off from the first.
  • They ended up in the same case study group and hit it off immediately.
► hold somebody ↔ off
  • People will think they let Charmaine off the hook because she's a woman.
  • And he was at the heart of two of the double plays that got Johns off the hook.
  • And this time there is no second match to get anyone off the hook!
  • Apologising for ourselves Apologising and being self-deprecating can let you off the hook.
  • Home striker Paul Crimmen let them off the hook on a number of occasions and Horsham had two goals disallowed.
  • I emphasize the tense because Congress has the habit of letting itself off the hook when convenient.
  • It could even, in a pinch, get him off the hook for the nightly walk to the monument.
  • Why, she wondered, when she had effectively let him off the hook?
  • You could let them off the hook, or you could reel them in.
► leave/take the phone off the hook
  • The phone was ringing off the hook here all weekend.
  • People were queuing up for the new Harry Potter book to arrive - hot off the press.
► keep something ↔ off
  • And keep your hands off Maria.
  • But today with his mind too preoccupied to work he seemed quite unable to keep his hands off it.
  • Couldn't keep our hands off each other.
  • I could not keep my hands off them.
  • The government should keep its hands off content.
  • They had been unable to keep their hands off each other.
  • They should stay out where they belong - keep their hands off our people.
► keep (somebody) off something► keep off something► keep something ↔ off► kick somebody off something► out of kilter/off kilter► get your kit off
  • Cierra's performance knocked my socks off!
  • And yet the correlations just knock my socks off..
  • The current crop of non-Windows databases can knock the socks off their predecessors.
  • This in-your-face marketing could be forgiven if the food absolutely knocked your socks off.
► knock somebody off their pedestal/perch
  • It certainly knocks spots off anything attempted by the newly-Thatcherising Conservatives in the run-up to the 1979 election.
  • You kids, knock it off in there!
  • And, how was it, no, if they knocked it off.
  • I knocked it off as I ran past.
  • No, you didn't have to knock it off you had to choose thingies on a card.
  • The following day we could knock it off in few hours before returning to base.
► I’ll knock your head/block off
  • And I know Frank was knocked off.
  • By five he had knocked off most of the items on his priority list.
  • Everyone else appeared to have some sort of credit card that knocked off up to 25 percent.
  • In Newcastle residents would have £32 knocked off their £349 bill if the Government assessment of spending had been more accurate.
  • It took us some time to get to Kitumbeine and the district officer had knocked off.
  • Suppose I tell you the name of the guy who knocked off Mahoney.
  • Their run through the NCAAs last year, when they knocked off three No. 1 seeds, was no fluke.
  • What do you do with an evil one, who is knocking off the neighbors?
► knock something ↔ off► knock something ↔ off► knock something ↔ off► knock somebody ↔ off► knock something ↔ off► lay somebody ↔ off
  • An estimated 3 million workers have been laid off be-tween 1989 and 1995 as corporate profits have soared.
  • He and Dean had just been laid off during a seniority lapse because of a drastic reduction of crews.
  • He must lay off the kif.
  • The sort of business which flourished in the eighties but suffered in the recession hit nineties, laying off workers.
  • The station has laid off one-third of its staff.
  • Three years later, it reported its worst quarterly loss ever and laid off 16 percent of its work force.
  • We must lay off the booze even during Holy Communion.
  • We sought out people who had been laid off from large corporations and were forced to create new lives.
  • An estimated 3 million workers have been laid off be-tween 1989 and 1995 as corporate profits have soared.
  • He and Dean had just been laid off during a seniority lapse because of a drastic reduction of crews.
  • He must lay off the kif.
  • The sort of business which flourished in the eighties but suffered in the recession hit nineties, laying off workers.
  • The station has laid off one-third of its staff.
  • Three years later, it reported its worst quarterly loss ever and laid off 16 percent of its work force.
  • We must lay off the booze even during Holy Communion.
  • We sought out people who had been laid off from large corporations and were forced to create new lives.
► lay something ↔ off
  • Andy leads off up large, friable flakes, hair plastered to his head but now mercifully sheltered.
  • Bruins coach Steve Kasper led off.
  • He retired the first 12 men he faced before David Justice led off the fifth with a double.
  • Newman spotted the track leading off to the right and swung away from the main road.
  • On the first floor, leading off a covered balcony, were the chambers of the fellows and scholars.
  • Ramirez led off, and Mussina needed 13 pitches to strike him out.
  • The other came after his walk to lead off the ninth with the score tied at seven.
  • Then he violently shoved her down the small flight of stairs that led off their bedroom to the bathroom.
► leave somebody/something off (something)► let somebody off (something)► let something ↔ off► level something ↔ off/out
  • Significantly others have reacted with ambivalence: That exercise on support really took the lid off things in our school.
  • Tilda, unabashed, was out in the pantry, helping the ward orderlies take the lids off the supper trays.
  • I'm letting you off lightly this time, but next time you could end up in jail.
  • Bill Stubbly had got off lightly - so far.
  • But that doesn't mean that the person responsible should be allowed to get off lightly.
  • He'd got off lightly with the men earlier.
  • Mind you, Little Liz got off lightly.
  • Really she was getting off lightly with a few glasses of bleach.
  • Reno got off lightly compared to Curran.
  • You got off lightly in the alley tonight.
  • The basement was always off limits to us kids.
  • Consequently there is no topic that is off limits for discussion, even if a few are off limits for experimentation.
  • However; it was off limits for Robbie to hit or scratch his sister.
  • Nearly one-quarter of the land will be completely off limits to development.
  • People's reaction to loss remains one of society's least understood and most off limits topics for discussion.
  • Rumour has it that these are children with learning difficulties; off limits to our group of visiting helpers.
  • Social Security, 25 percent of all spending for other than interest on the debt, has been declared off limits.
  • Unlike most group discussions, nothing was off limits.
► it fell off the back of a lorry
  • Antonia, as the year pressed on, was gradually dropping off the map.
  • Augustine somehow resists every attempt to wipe it off the map.
  • But after only one spoonful, I could tell this stuff was off the map.
  • Eleven years ago, highway officials voted, in essence, to take Route 66 off the map.
  • Finally, he peeled the markers off the map, leaving it blank once more.
  • In El Salvador they've just had an earthquake, and whole towns were wiped off the map.
  • We're slipping off the map.
  • We had quite literally walked off the map.
► off the mark/wide of the mark
  • Salad crops, however, are quick off the mark.
  • This time, they were slow off the mark.
  • Not one of them is focused, on message or safe to be left alone with a computer.
  • So memories are made of spatiotemporal patterns like those on message boards.
  • But I think he's lovely, and you can tell a mile off that he likes you.
  • He's a hawkeye, and can spot one a mile off, like that faraway kestrel.
  • Our sportsdesk can spot from a mile off a person who can not tell an in-swinger from a bouncer.
  • At other times, the surroundings helped to take my mind off it.
  • I guess there is nothing that will get your mind off every-thing like golf will.
  • Instead they tried to take their minds off the poster campaign by providing weekend entertainment.
  • It takes your mind off how you feel.
  • Kirsty chattered excitedly throughout the journey, helping to keep Shiona's mind off her anxieties.
  • Letters could take my mind off most things.
  • To take his mind off his worries, I suggested that he wrote out a message for his family.
  • When the other guy thinks you are cheating, it can take his mind off the game.
► it/that is a load/weight off somebody’s mind
  • In synopsis the new play sounds rather like his best-known work, Noises Off.
  • Steve Cassidy hears the noises off.
► be off your nut► catch/throw somebody off-balance► off-off Broadway
  • I called on the off-chance that Patty might be home.
  • I just came on the off-chance.
  • I rang Otto on the off-chance.
  • I walked over to the wardrobe and opened the door just on the off-chance.
  • It was a long way to drive on the off-chance that something would come of it.
  • The card is too expensive on the off-chance I could get in an away game during the season.
  • There was no time to contact him, so I came on the off-chance.
► catch/take somebody off-guard
  • Much of the palace is off limits to the public.
  • The officer told the soldiers that the town was off limits.
  • Consequently there is no topic that is off limits for discussion, even if a few are off limits for experimentation.
  • However; it was off limits for Robbie to hit or scratch his sister.
  • Income from interest, dividends or profits from stock sales would be off limits.
  • Unlike most group discussions, nothing was off limits.
  • Mason works out everyday in the off-season.
  • Travel packages to Hawaii are dirt cheap during the off-season.
  • Parking is a problem but the parish council are working to get a proper car park to give off-street parking.
  • Without the creation of new off-street parking areas, this problem is likely to intensify.
  • It rained off and on for the whole afternoon.
  • A large blue diamond was flashing on and off.
  • After she had left the office, Wyatt sat and listened to the ventilator go on and off.
  • After studying accountancy at Chicago University, he worked on and off as an investment analyst.
  • My husband has suffered from heartburn on and off for years and has recently been diagnosed as having a hiatus hernia.
  • The spokeswoman says Disney has 50 to 70 toll-free numbers, which it turns on and off to coincide with special promotions.
  • Then we went for a walk, with him continually flying on and off my shoulder.
  • There are thousands of tax-paying jobs generated on and off the reservation.
  • With the other type switch on and off is non-automatic.
  • He wasn't interested in the heavy political stuff which bored the pants off most people.
  • It took ten minutes to reach Honey Cottage, with Yanto trying his best to scare the pants off Mary.
  • Lovely people who scared the pants off him.
  • The tests scare the pants off many managers.
  • Though, mind you, it scares the pants off poor old Crumwallis.
  • She beat the pants off me last time we played.
  • He is aware of his competitors-and he beats the pants off them.
► pass off well/badly etc
  • The agents managed to pass themselves off as wealthy businessmen.
  • They tried to pass the crystals off as diamonds.
  • Anyone trying to pass these absurdities off as fiction would have been laughed out of Hollywood.
  • As a childless wife can only suffer, there would be no point in passing an intersexual off as a woman.
  • But what more could you expect from the bunch of monkeys trying to pass themselves off as judges?
  • Equally, it is an offence for a private company to pass itself off as being a public company and viceversa.
  • I wonder how many years unqualified people could pass themselves off as consultant thoracic surgeons, for example, without detection.
  • This is the kind of thing a man who passes himself off as a fashion consultant can be expected to know.
  • Though the doubt is really an expression of not-being-committed, it passes itself off as an excuse for not-committing.
  • We could go in and pass ourselves off as invited guests by being brazen.
  • Like most politicians he had all his answers off pat, but he didn't have anything particularly new or interesting to say.
  • She only had to repeat the lines once or twice, and she'd have them down pat.
► pawn somebody/something ↔ off as something► pay something ↔ off► pay somebody ↔ off► pay somebody ↔ off► peel something ↔ off► peel off $20/£50 etc► piss somebody ↔ off► play off somebody/something► pull something ↔ off
  • Both of those editions were pulled off the racks by supermarket chains that had received complaints from customers.
  • I pulled off the road in the Lamar Valley at the trail to Crystal Bench and parked in mud.
  • Morland bosses say they've pulled off the escape of the decade Male speaker Even our staff backed us up.
  • Skill Oxton just failed to pull off victory at Hightown on a rain affected wicket.
  • We pulled off the sheets and untied the prisoner from the post.
  • Yet in February 1990 he pulled off one of cricket's all-time miracles.
► put something ↔ off► put somebody ↔ off
  • All the noise from the crowd put Alison off her game.
  • Don't let her put you off, it's a really good movie.
  • Seles couldn't concentrate on the game - the photographers were putting her off.
  • Stop staring at me, it's putting me off.
  • That weekend put me off camping for the rest of my life!
  • When she told me she worked in an abattoir it rather put me off her.
  • When you know an artist used to abuse his wife and children it does tend to put you off his work.
► put somebody off (something)► put somebody off (something)
  • Both of those editions were pulled off the racks by supermarket chains that had received complaints from customers.
  • Each time I said I liked one, this guy pulls it off the rack.
  • High ready-to-wear prices, but none the less gowns available off the rack.
  • What I hear you saying is that I have lived my life as if I bought my clothes off the rack.
  • But it was the news pages that had really gone off the rails.
  • Has something gone off the rails here?
  • Things started to go off the rails, however, with the Fiat Multipla.
  • Off the record, police officers are saying they are more and more unwilling to arrest those found in possession of small amounts of cannabis.
  • Officials, speaking off the record, said they were still worried about the situation.
  • Strictly off the record, my feeling is that we are going to lose the election.
  • I shaved and showered, clipping two seconds off the record, and was soon out on the highway heading for Faketown.
  • Nothing is off the record here.
  • Skaters and coaches will admit this, off the record.
  • The rest of the discussion, says Himmelstein, was off the record.
  • There is no off the record.
  • They said in 1976 that a tuned track could shave as much as 7 seconds off the record for the mile.
  • Well, I don't blame you, after ... All right: from here on you're totally off the record.
  • You want to be off the record?
  • I don't just want people to get their rocks off.
  • You're a rock group so people get their rocks off.
► be off your rocker► run something ↔ off► run somebody off something► run something ↔ off
  • Boyd seems to enjoy running off at the mouth to the press.
  • That never used to be a fault of his, running off at the mouth.
  • To what smug labors and running off at the mouth!
► run something ↔ off
  • And why should I try to throw you off the scent?
  • But he'd got to put Graham off the scent.
  • Or were they trying to put him off the scent?
  • That put them off the scent.
  • The aspirant towards a more spiritual way of life will be thrown entirely off the scent.
  • The father, be he absentee or abusive, gets off scot-free.
  • Beyond him, I could see the camp coming alive.
  • Birds, like planes, usually face into the wind, so they do not see the plane coming.
  • He looked up to see Norm coming down the driveway.
  • One of the man-things had seen them coming and shouted a warning.
  • Sarah Fleming saw them coming through the window of the front room.
  • She saw him coming and intended to give him a wide berth.
  • That Salvor Hardin had seen it coming made it none the more pleasant.
  • We were heading for the landing zone and could even see a chopper coming toward us.
► send something ↔ off
  • But in his next match he was sent off for twice attacking the goalie.
  • Damiano Tommasi paid for it minutes later when he was sent off for felling Robbie Fowler.
  • His nose was broken in two places by a player he had sent off for violent play.
  • Hull were reduced to 12 men on the hour when Mark Jones was sent off for throwing a punch at Gary Tees.
  • I see Chapman got sent off for Portsmouth.
  • Newbridge substitute Stuart Griffiths was also sent off for stamping against Pontypridd, just six minutes after coming on.
  • Some of these will be on the periodical shelves at your library and others you might want to send off for.
  • Then, Nutt the player appeared to make a retaliatory late tackle, and after being penalised was sent off for dissent.
► send somebody ↔ off► set something ↔ off► set something ↔ off► set something ↔ off► set something ↔ off► set somebody off► set something off against tax
  • All he did was shoot his mouth off a little.
  • So you can't shoot your mouth off.
► show something ↔ off► show something ↔ off► shut something ↔ off
  • He shuts himself off from his two young daughters and composes laments to his dead wife.
  • I shut myself off from the female race and channelled all my energy into my work.
  • Students who avoid learning even the basics can shut themselves off from important sources in the field.
  • These people are completely shut off from the rest of society.
  • Virginia and Peter Stillman were shut off from him now.
► sign somebody off► sign something ↔ off► it’s no skin off somebody’s nose
  • Diesels are condemned by some for being too slow off the mark.
  • This time, they were slow off the mark.
  • And yet the correlations just knock my socks off..
  • So, he popped down to my office, stuck this demo on the turntable and it just blew my socks off.
  • The current crop of non-Windows databases can knock the socks off their predecessors.
  • This in-your-face marketing could be forgiven if the food absolutely knocked your socks off.
► sod off► split something ↔ off► square something ↔ off► start something ↔ off► start somebody ↔ off► start somebody off
  • Recess is a good chance for kids to blow off steam.
  • It was recreation hour, explained Brother Andrew with a smile, and the Brothers were letting off steam.
  • Jody lets her blow off steam first.
  • Others have behavioural problems and need to let off steam in a safe and controlled setting.
  • She just needed to blow off steam.
  • So kicking the cat, biting a towel or pounding a pillow aren't really much use, except for letting off steam.
  • We let off steam in graffiti, vandalism and football hooliganism.
  • You got upset, blew off steam.
  • You want to let off steam?
  • Human experimenters have found it surprisingly difficult to put bats off their stride by playing loud artificial ultrasound at them.
  • Ancient law, it seems, was on their side; thousands were struck off, and more feared to be.
  • Do you want me to be struck off?
  • He was struck off in 1998, but still receives a National Health Service pension.
  • He was struck off the medical register for his pains.
  • In serious breaches of these codes, the professional can be struck off the professional register. 5.
  • Then her head was struck off and fixed on gallows and her body thrown into the pit.
► put somebody off their stroke
  • Donald absolutely swept me off my feet.
  • She's just waiting to be swept off her feet by a handsome stranger.
  • Then Peter came into my life and swept me off my feet.
► take something ↔ off► take something off (something)► take somebody ↔ off► talk the hind leg(s) off a donkey► talk somebody’s ear off
  • As for going off at tangents, my dear, I do it myself, hormone balance not withstanding.
  • Loretta's mind went off at a tangent.
► tear somebody off a strip/tear a strip off somebody► tee somebody off► tell somebody where to go/where to get off► give somebody a ticking off
  • A name which trips off the tongue.
  • Most have spent all their sentient life as paid-up devotees, and the glib phrases soon roll off the tongue.
  • ""How old is Chris?" "I don't know off the top of my head."
  • "Do you remember her name?" "Not off the top of my head."
  • "How much is the house worth?" "Off the top of my head, I'd say it's worth maybe $160,000."
  • There are some good restaurants around here, but I can't tell you their names off the top of my head.
  • I keep doing stuff off the top of my head.
  • In my imagination, I can lift off the top of my head, just like a lid.
  • It was all off the top of my head.
  • And the full bellows tongue is topped with Cambrelle covered padding.
  • Eaten raw in salads, it becomes more interesting if it is topped with herbs and a good quality olive oil.
  • Even the boldly striped mooring posts were topped with a dollop of white, rather like gaudy Cornetto ice-creams.
  • The compost is topped with a layer of pea gravel.
  • The wall was topped with rolls of barbed wire and jagged ends of glass stuck into the eight-foot concrete slabs.
  • Clarisa tossed it all off as fate.
  • When the brandy arrived, he filled a glass and tossed it off, in a gesture of childish defiance.
  • Clarisa tossed it all off as fate.
  • When the brandy arrived, he filled a glass and tossed it off, in a gesture of childish defiance.
  • Clarisa tossed it all off as fate.
  • When the brandy arrived, he filled a glass and tossed it off, in a gesture of childish defiance.
  • After debating, I decided that I should not get off the track.
  • I almost wet in my pants before I got off the track to relieve myself.
  • His name, "Roberto Carlos," just trips off the tongue.
  • A name which trips off the tongue.
  • I am sure some of the guys in my workshop think I am off my trolley.
  • Stuart Baxter must be off his trolley, sending some one like that.
► turn something ↔ off► turn something ↔ off
  • Organizers are considering turning off the air-conditioning for the event, or using it only sporadically.
  • Pulling up to a stop sign, she touches the clutch and the engine turns off.
  • She turned off the water and stepped out on to the rug, dried herself, and dressed in jeans and a shirt.
  • Summertime is a great time to turn off that computer and get outdoors.
  • Then he stepped out of the room, turning off his box.
  • There is no doubt that the ventilator may be turned off when in fact, the patient is already dead.
  • With a gun held at his head he was forced to turn off all the alarms.
► turn somebody ↔ off► turn somebody ↔ off► fall off the wagon► walk somebody off their feet► walk somebody’s legs off► walk something ↔ off
  • A reporter for the Wheeling Intelligencer had just walked off the structure when the catastrophe occurred.
  • Emotionlessly she kissed me in the vineyard and walked off down the row.
  • He walked off disconsolate: he knew he had played well enough to win and had not.
  • It makes the software easier to display and harder to walk off with.
  • Stewart walked off with the look of one who was the sole survivor of a particularly nasty plane crash.
  • The sergeant was tempted to walk off but did not.
  • We had quite literally walked off the map.
  • When he walked off towards the car park Henry didn't bother following.
  • A Whitney Houston tape echoed off the walls.
  • Before I could grasp what was happening, I had bounced off the wall and was crumpling on to the floor in pain.
  • I jumped down off the wall and joined my sister who was standing behind them listening.
  • The husband tried to seize a portrait of her, an oil painting, rip it right off the wall.
  • The noise of conversation from the hall below bounced off the walls around them.
  • There's a woman just up the road so I hop off the wall and run after her.
► warn somebody ↔ off► warn somebody off (doing) something► wash something ↔ off► like water off a duck’s back
  • After the novelty wears off, the Internet can be a very dull place.
  • Once the novelty has worn off, most of these kitchen gadgets just sit in the cupboard, unused for years.
  • But as time wears on, the novelty wears off and dissatisfaction results.
  • Maybe Antonietta herself will tire of me when the novelty wears off.
  • Come in, take the weight off your feet.
  • Make the bed - then you can lie down and take the weight off your feet while we talk.
► be well-off for something► you don’t know when you’re well-off► the wheels come off something
  • I'd like to wipe that stupid grin off your face.
► wipe something off the face of the earth/wipe something off the map
  • I work my butt off for you, while that restaurant is doing worse and worse.
  • I worked my butt off in basketball and stayed on the varsity-in fact, did well.
  • I had to give the ball up, and then I had work my butt off to get it back.
  • In short, I worked my butt off.
  • Meanwhile, Inspiral Carpets went in at grass roots level and worked their butts off in the clubs.
  • You could have worked your butt off helping a rep and you finally got the rep doing everything right.
  • Alec Davidson, for example, was one of those who came off worst.
► take the wraps off something► write somebody/something ↔ off► write something ↔ off► write something ↔ off► write something ↔ off
  • We just got off on the wrong foot the other day.
  • Unfortunately, Pope got off on the wrong foot with his new troops.
  • We got off on the wrong foot the other day and it was my fault.
► put years on somebody/take years off somebody
1the off the start of a race or a journey:  The horses were in line, ready for the off.2from the off from the beginning of something:  She was doubtful about the interview from the off.
off1 adverb, preposition, adjectiveoff2 adjectiveoff3 nounoff4 verb
offoff4 verb [transitive] American English informal Verb Table
VERB TABLE
off
Simple Form
PresentI, you, we, theyoff
he, she, itoffs
PastI, you, he, she, it, we, theyoffed
Present perfectI, you, we, theyhave offed
he, she, ithas offed
Past perfectI, you, he, she, it, we, theyhad offed
FutureI, you, he, she, it, we, theywill off
Future perfectI, you, he, she, it, we, theywill have offed
Continuous Form
PresentIam offing
he, she, itis offing
you, we, theyare offing
PastI, he, she, itwas offing
you, we, theywere offing
Present perfectI, you, we, theyhave been offing
he, she, ithas been offing
Past perfectI, you, he, she, it, we, theyhad been offing
FutureI, you, he, she, it, we, theywill be offing
Future perfectI, you, he, she, it, we, theywill have been offing
Collocations
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
(=stop giving aid)· The US has threatened to cut off aid to the region.· Conditons deteriorated further as western aid was withdrawn.
(=make it start ringing)· A window blew open, setting off the alarm.
(also an alarm sounds formal)· The thieves fled when an alarm went off.
· I entered the shop and switched off the alarm.
(=end it)· The Athenians broke off the alliance with Sparta and made alliances with Argos and Thessaly.
 Do me a favour and get off my back!
· The blow was hard enough to knock him off balance.
 Simpson came off the bench to play in midfield.
(=used to give advice or an opinion) He’d be better off starting with something simpler.
· I got on my bicycle and cycled over to Rob’s house.
· He got off his bike and walked with her for a while.
· Forty people were injured when the bomb exploded.· A 200 pound bomb went off in the car park.
(also detonate a bomb formal) (=make a bomb explode)· The area was cleared and the police safely detonated the bomb.
 She was booed off stage (=they shouted ‘boo’ until she left the stage).
· In the end she decided to break their engagement.
 They are getting browned off by the situation.
 She gave him the brush-off.
 I tried to be friendly but I just got the brush-off.
(=hits something and moves away from it again)· The bullet ricocheted off a wall.
· Several more passengers got on the bus.
· A button has come off my skirt.
(=use up the calories you have eaten)· Even walking will help you to burn up calories.
· He opened the door, took off his cap, and threw it on a hook.
· The police car drove off at top speed.
(=starts to be successful)· His career took off and he started making a lot of money.
 I turned on the heater in the hall to take the chill off the house (=to heat it slightly).
(=used to tell someone angrily to go away)
(=rings at a particular time)· What time do you want the alarm clock to go off tomorrow?
· She took off her clothes and slipped into bed.
· A group of tourists were getting on the coach.
· She took off her coat and went into the kitchen.
 The performance on the first night came off pretty well.
 His family were comfortably off (=fairly rich).
· She beat off competition from dozens of other candidates to get the job.
(=stop using a computer system that requires a password)
· Always switch off your computer at the end of the day.
(=cause it)· The new rules are likely to spark more controversy.
 He was taken off the critical list and is now in a stable condition.
(=the date etc when you stop doing something) The cut-off date for registration is July 2.
 I’m taking a few days off before the wedding.
(=pay the money back)· The first thing I'm going to do is pay off my debts.
(=say officially that it does not have to be paid)· The bank finally agreed to write off the debt.
(=far away from where you are, and exciting)· The company arranges tours to exotic destinations such as Nepal.
(=write asking for information)· Why don't you send for details of the course?
· Wash the dirt off those boots before you come in.
 He felt himself drifting off to sleep.
(=stop taking drugs permanently)· It was years before I was able to come off drugs.
(=very easy)
(=gradually stops)· The effect of the anaesthetic was beginning to wear off.
(=stop the supply of electricity)· You risk having your electricity cut off if you fail to pay the bill.
informal (=send it quickly, especially because you are angry about something)· I fired off an email to the hotel, saying how disgusted I was with their level of service.
(=stop employing them because there is no work for them to do)· Unions fear that many part-time employees will be laid off.
(=suddenly end it)· Were you surprised when Toni broke off your engagement?
· Maggie pulled over and switched off the engine.
(=it gradually becomes less)· The initial excitement of my new job was starting to wear off.
· Take the next exit, junction 15.
(also embark on an expedition formal) (=leave at the start of an expedition)· Trent set off on an expedition to collect plants with fellow botanical students.
(=cause an explosion)· Investigators believe a fuel leak may have triggered the explosion.
(=close to being correct) I guessed it would cost $100 and it was $110, so I was not far out.
 visitors from a far-off land far-off galaxies
 We were in the middle of an exam when the fire alarm went off.
 Someone set off the fire alarm.
 Jeff and David were in the back yard setting off fireworks.
 Red warning lights flashed on and off (=shone for a short time and then stopped shining).
· She’d just got off a flight from Buenos Aires.
 The appeal has got off to a flying start, with over £200,000 raised in the first week.
British English (=not want to eat)· The baby is off his food.
British English (=to stop wanting to eat)· Since becoming ill, he has gone off his food.
(=succeeds)· She gave up a career in law to become an actor, but the gamble has paid off.
British English (=played to decide the winner after a previous game ended with both teams having equal points)
 What time do you get off work?
 I went to bed but couldn’t get off to sleep.
· Elsie took off her glasses and rubbed her eyes.
 The injury to Keane took the gloss off Manchester United’s victory.
· Mr Brownlow took off his gloves.
 I’d just gone off to sleep when the phone rang.
 a hands-off style of management
 The government has a hands-off approach to the industry.
· We turn the heating off before bed.
· The heating goes off automatically when the room is warm enough.
 She stormed out in a huff.
· I scraped the ice off the car windscreen.
(=discuss each other’s ideas and think of good new ones)· Our regular meetings are opportunities to fire ideas off each other.
(=cause it to happen suddenly)· It is claimed that the police provoked the incident.
(also embark on a journey formal) (=start a long journey)· Before setting off on a journey, look at maps and guidebooks.
 I think it might kick off in here with all these football fans around.
 Do you want to knock off early today?
 We usually knock off work at about twelve on Saturday.
· One of the builders fell off a ladder and broke his leg.
· He switched off the lamp beside the bed.
(=laugh a lot)· The audience laughed its head off all the way through.
(=continue something that has stopped for a short time) Barry took up the story where Justine had left off.
(=allow someone to escape punishment or criticism) He’d decided to make Sandra wait before letting her off the hook.
(=give someone a less serious punishment than they deserve) I think young criminals are let off far too lightly.
 I wished he would just get off the line.
 Most people in the countryside live off the land (=live by growing or finding their own food).
 Knowing he was safe was a load off my mind (=I felt less worried).
(=give back the money you borrowed, usually over a period of time)· You can repay the loan early without a penalty.
· Is the tape machine switched off?
(also remove make-up formal)· Take off eye make-up gently, using a cotton ball.
· I can’t get this dirty mark to come out.
(=it starts)· The match kicks off at 3.30 pm.
(=stop taking a medication)· Coming off the medication made him more aggressive.
 Want a game? It might take your mind off things.
 when Hubbard shuffled off this mortal coil (=died)
(=finish paying all the money you owe)· They paid off their mortgage five years early.
· We got on the motorway near Watford.
(=leave the motorway)· We forgot to turn off the motorway and ended up in London.
(=take off a baby's nappy)· Come on, let's take this dirty nappy off.
(=stop them)· The two companies have broken off negotiations on the deal.
(=something stops seeming new and interesting)· Once the novelty had worn off he didn't play with his train set much.
 The sudden movement of the ship knocked them both off balance.
 Telephone charges are lower during off-peak periods.
 an off-road vehicle
 It’s yours for a one-off payment of only £200.
(=be very noticeable)· One mistake jumped off the page.
(=take most of the paint off a surface using a tool)· Scrape off any loose or flaking paint and rub the surface with sandpaper.
· The bus stopped and half the passengers got off.
(=it cannot be used because it is not connected or is already being used)· On Friday nights we just take the phone off the hook and relax.
 We’ll meet again in the morning and we can pick up where we left off.
 You get really pissed off applying for jobs all the time.
(=goes into the air)· The flight attendants served drinks shortly after the plane took off.
· Would he ever see her again after they got off the plane?
 The two musicians played off each other in a piece of inspired improvisation.
 a young singer who was tragically cut off in her prime (=died while she was in her prime)
(=cause them)· The arrests sparked off violent street protests.
(also emit radiation formal) (=produce it)· The lamps emit ultra-violet radiation.
· You can turn the radio off, darling, we're not listening to it.
(=it starts to rain less)· The rain should ease off in a minute.
 They missed the off-ramp to Manhattan.
· After the incident, Croatia broke off all relations with Serbia.
· She was very upset when I ended the relationship.
(=happening sometimes and not at other times)· Their on–off relationship seemed to have come to an end two years ago.
 He goes off on a riff about the problems of being middle-aged.
 I could tell right off that something was wrong.
American English (=immediately, without having to think carefully) Kay answered right off the bat.
(=make it start)· The incident sparked off a riot which lasted for three days.
 I’ve been rushed off my feet (=extremely busy) all day.
informal (=scare someone very much)
(=scream a lot)· At least the idiot wasn’t panicking and screaming his head off.
· They called off the search when it got dark.
(=lose a game or competition, or not be as successful as someone else)
 The department gave Tom a send-off he won’t forget!
· They took off their shoes in the hallway.
(=put them on or take them off quickly or gently)· She slipped off her shoes and curled her feet up under her on the sofa.
(=take them off by moving your legs)· Maria kicked off her shoes and sat down.
 The robbers were armed with sawn-off shotguns (=ones that have been made shorter, so the balls go in different directions).
British English, be out sick American English (=be away from work or school because you are ill)· Half my staff were off sick.
 For the last month, she has been signed off sick from work.
(=start sleeping, especially without meaning to)· She’d drifted off to sleep on the sofa.
(=produce a smell)· Rubber gives off a strong smell when it is burned.
· My feet got so hot and sweaty I took my trainers and socks off.
· I came off stage last night and just collapsed in a heap.
(=leave the stage, especially before you should)· The pianist walked off the stage after playing only a few notes.
· On your first day at work, you want to get off to a good start.
 She brought some fruit on the journey to stave off hunger.
(=decide not to continue with it)· The strike was called off two days later.
(=not talk about it)· I knew he was trying to avoid the subject of drugs.· She hoped that Anna would keep off the subject of Luke for the next few hours.
(=make them talk about something else)· It was difficult to get him off the subject of cars.
· I couldn’t find the on-off switch.
 Mimi became jealous when Jack’s career started taking off.
 I rang my boss and arranged to take some time off.
 Dad took the day off to come with me.
· I forgot to turn the tap off.
· I switched off the television and went to bed.
(=become trapped as the sea rises)· Two anglers had to be rescued after getting cut off by the tide.
· He got off the train at Flushing.
 Mark turned off the highway and into Provincetown.
(=disappear so that no sign remains) The youngster vanished without a trace one day and has never been found.
 The plane veered off course.
(=win when it is difficult)· Martin pulled off a surprise victory in the semi-final.
(=becomes quieter until you cannot hear it)· ‘It's just that … ’, his voice trailed away uncertainly.
(=go for a walk so that your stomach feels less full)
(=turn a tap to stop water coming out of pipes or to let it come out)· Turn the water off while you're brushing your teeth.
(=become or stay thinner)· I changed my eating habits so I’d keep the weight off.
 Many pensioners are less well-off (=have less money) than they used to be.
(=win when it is difficult to win)· The side has pulled off two excellent wins in the past couple of weeks.
 Brenda jumped in the car and zoomed off.
Phrases
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
  • We'll be on air in about three minutes.
  • Broadcasting via a system of street loudspeakers the radio is on the air for three hours each Sunday.
  • By this standard, half the sitcoms would be off the air.
  • Gillroy could no longer raise Darwin, and Koepang seemed to be off the air.
  • If left-wing radio talk show hosts got higher ratings, the right-wing hosts would be off the air.
  • Ministers that were on the air selling prayer cloths.
  • Sue was talking as they went, describing the scene, and Kathleen realised they were on air live again.
  • The Channel 5 licence is expected to be awarded in early November and be on air at the latest in 1995.
  • They're under a lot of pressure because they have to be on air 24 hours.
► get off your arse
  • Electioneering, he had talked tough about getting government off the backs of the people.
  • Even if that had happened, it didn't justify the violence of Steen's attempts to get Jacqui off his back.
  • He had a chance now to tell on Lee, to get him off his back, out of Jubilee Wood.
  • Ian denies all but tells them about Mel sleeping with Phil to get them off his back.
  • It would have been a good excuse to use to get Mr Parnham off his back.
  • Maybe he figured the only way to get her off his back was to confess.
  • She got the revolver off the back seat and put it into the glove compartment with the cartridges.
  • Sitting there, day in, day out, hardly able to get off his backside.
  • They should get off their backsides and let us see what they intend to do about it.
► badly off for something
  • A badly packed rucksack can easily throw you off balance.
  • And despite what he'd said, less a token of affection than a means of throwing her off balance.
  • But before Adamowski could get his campaign under way, Daley threw him off balance by going on the offensive.
  • He had an authority, an abrupt decisiveness, that caught me off balance.
  • It throws the viewer off balance but speaks to the part of each person that is capable, potent and dignified.
  • She has a problem with some little gland or other, which can throw her right off balance.
  • The movement threw him off balance.
  • Waking up to that penetrating ice-blue gaze was enough to throw anyone off balance for the rest of the day.
► be off base
  • He had made the most ancient blunder in the business quite off his own bat.
  • Instead, off her own bat, the girl went to see a solicitor in Newton Abbott, Devon.
  • I asked him to help, and he said yes right off the bat.
  • At least not right off the bat.
► off beam► beat somebody/something ↔ off
  • Appenzell really is off the beaten track.
  • Away from the Algarve, it's not hard to get off the beaten track.
  • Soon it is not going to be so easy to get off the beaten path.
  • They are off the beaten track.
  • To say that Crenshaw is off the beaten path is an understatement.
  • Unusual interests, off the beaten track experiences should be of interest.
  • We kept off the beaten track, away from those traders who fixed high prices, for Shallot knew where to go.
  • Yet for most visitors from overseas, Windisch with its treasure is definitely off the beaten track.
  • Many kids who leave home to live alone find they have bitten off more than they can chew.
  • Her book has blown the lid off the Reagan years.
  • You gave instructions that I would be the one to blow the lid off.
  • Depressed, he blows his head off.
  • He held a loaded air pistol to her stepfather's neck and threatened to blow his head off.
  • If I ever get you alone, I am going to blow your head off.
  • It would come in a box and it would blow your head off.
  • She also told the court that he'd heard he'd threatened to blow his head off.
  • Then he saw himself tripping over the gun and blowing his head off.
  • I went jogging to blow off some steam.
  • Jody lets her blow off steam first.
  • She just needed to blow off steam.
  • You got upset, blew off steam.
  • Even extortion has gone off the boil.
  • I knew as soon as I wrote it down I'd go off the boil.
  • Now it appears to have gone off the boil.
  • The second series really went off the boil because there was much more emphasis on the woman lawyer.
  • We're letting the kettle go off the boil.
  • As they are quite tiny, quail are most often savored by nibbling the juicy meat right off the bone.
  • Roast in preheated oven until the meat falls off the bone easily, 2 / 2 to 3 hours.
  • He bounced ideas off colleagues everywhere he went, and they were greeted with enthusiasm.
  • Is there some one I can bounce ideas off?
  • They can bounce ideas off one another and provide a mutual critique or one another's work.
  • We could bounce ideas off each other and share problems.
  • You can bounce ideas off them and benefit from their expertise, as they have often been self-employed themselves.
► break something ↔ off
  • But the results of the Christmas consumer test will give new heart to anyone browned off by the festive ripoff syndrome.
  • Outside, some kids, browned off with the phone-booth, had snapped a sapling rowan in half.
  • He took a beating today but he played his butt off.
  • I had to give the ball up, and then I had work my butt off to get it back.
  • I work my butt off for you, while that restaurant is doing worse and worse.
  • I worked my butt off in basketball and stayed on the varsity-in fact, did well.
  • In short, I worked my butt off.
  • Meanwhile, Inspiral Carpets went in at grass roots level and worked their butts off in the clubs.
  • You could have worked your butt off helping a rep and you finally got the rep doing everything right.
► buy off-plan► buzz off!
  • I had a terrible day at work, and to cap it all off I got a flat tire.
  • And to cap it all off, when she was tied-up she couldn't run backwards, so she lay down instead!
  • And to cap it all she could feel the ominous beginnings of a thundering headache.
  • And to cap it all, the bland sleazy boredom of it all.
  • And, to cap it all, Wimbledon won the Cup.
  • OK, OK, just get off my case, will you?
► cast somebody/something ↔ off
  • My pregnancy caught us by surprise, but we're happy about it.
  • The public's reaction obviously caught the governor off guard.
  • I keep all of my old clothes on the off chance that they might come back into fashion.
  • I asked him on the off chance.
  • Much effort went into tracing remote family connections abroad on the off chance of identifying a benefactor.
  • She thought of ringing him on the off chance of catching him at the flat, but shelved the possibility as unlikely.
  • People are able to get things off their chest in these meetings.
  • "That daughter of yours has a great sense of humour." "Yes, I like to think she's a chip off the old block!"
► chuck yourself off something
  • Bruce went to the doctor, feeling a little off colour, and was told that he had anaemia.
  • I'm fine, thank you, but Elinor's a bit off colour at the moment.
  • Although Vinny Samways has now come off the transfer list, Spurs look light in the key area.
  • Closer Ugueth Urbina is coming off elbow surgery.
  • Davis, coming off an all-pro year, wants to get as much money as he can.
  • Dehere was also coming off a 1-for-14 performance against Boston in the previous game.
  • Goering's second flight had also not come off.
  • If it comes off once a season it is worth it.
  • Look, after coming off tour I've just got no f-ing politics, religion, anything.
  • Although Vinny Samways has now come off the transfer list, Spurs look light in the key area.
  • Closer Ugueth Urbina is coming off elbow surgery.
  • Davis, coming off an all-pro year, wants to get as much money as he can.
  • Dehere was also coming off a 1-for-14 performance against Boston in the previous game.
  • Goering's second flight had also not come off.
  • If it comes off once a season it is worth it.
  • Look, after coming off tour I've just got no f-ing politics, religion, anything.
  • Although Vinny Samways has now come off the transfer list, Spurs look light in the key area.
  • Closer Ugueth Urbina is coming off elbow surgery.
  • Davis, coming off an all-pro year, wants to get as much money as he can.
  • Dehere was also coming off a 1-for-14 performance against Boston in the previous game.
  • Goering's second flight had also not come off.
  • If it comes off once a season it is worth it.
  • Look, after coming off tour I've just got no f-ing politics, religion, anything.
  • Alec Davidson, for example, was one of those who came off worst.
  • Bullock comes off best because her complaining seems so valid.
  • His foster-child comes off best, but in addition each of two nurses receives a tenth of his estate.
  • It may seem, so far, that in terms of clearly defined benefits, the client comes off best out of the deal.
  • Prior to that Meath had come off best when they accounted for Down in the 1990 league decider.
  • The lightning, it seemed to Lydia, had undoubtedly come off best in that encounter.
  • The problem is that history sometimes comes off better.
  • Oh, come off it, George. Sheila wouldn't do that.
► cut something ↔ off► cut something ↔ off
  • I don't know what happened - we just got cut off.
  • But my time on the Internet can range from only a few minutes to several hours before I get cut off.
  • Hi I was looking for Carolyn I think I got cut off.
  • Accessible only by air, the town is cut off from the rest of the country.
  • His main source of strength was cut off as was their mutual ability to deal realistically with the problems.
  • I am cut off at the waist for ever.
  • If he did, and the news reached the States, the money would be cut off immediately.
  • Sometimes the sea is so rough that the islands are cut off from the mainland for weeks at a time.
  • The consequences of this dependence were seen when the flow was cut off so abruptly after 1982.
  • We appear to be cut off and the look of the whole area is old fashioned.
  • When the tops of the posts are cut off, they will be level with the tops of the beams.
► cut somebody ↔ off
  • But, says the bank, countries that have cut themselves off from the global economy have slipped behind.
  • I have been so hungry that I have cut the blood off from crackers and eaten them.
  • I slid Lewis's helmet on and cut myself off from the world.
  • It turned the party in on itself and cut it off from the wider society.
  • The denial of tenderness cuts them off from communication with wives and children.
  • The inadequacy of communications cut Nice off from its hinterland, and condemned the entire county to poverty.
  • Yet these four were all we had to cut us off from the rest of the hall.
  • You cut yourself off from other people and from your true feelings.
► cut somebody ↔ off
  • If you love him, ask him to stay. Otherwise you'll be cutting off your nose to spite your face.
► dash something ↔ off
  • His work isn't usually this bad - he must have had an off day.
  • They must now get a result against free scoring Glenavon next Saturday and hope Bangor have an off day at Comrades.
  • You will have off days when you are tired or a bit under the weather.
► go off at the deep end► drive somebody ↔ off► drop somebody/something ↔ off
  • Boncoeur was on duty at the switchboard.
  • The night shift goes off duty at six a.m.
  • A skeleton staff was on duty to keep the world-wide operations of Royalbion ticking over.
  • Although she loved her work, never before had she wished to be on duty on a day off.
  • But it is believed he was off duty when the telex was sent.
  • Chapman, Detective Steve Kring was on duty that day.
  • He was on duty when his wife-to-be left her military hospital and was put on a troopship for home.
  • It makes no difference which girl is on duty.
  • She was off duty and I didn't call her.
  • The night security man would be on duty.
► ease off on somebody
  • You got off pretty easy if you only had to pay a $33 fine.
  • Newbill got off easy, but he was about the only one.
  • Rich celebrities are allowed to hire good lawyers and get off easy.
  • As you can perhaps appreciate, this rather took the edge off my initial delight.
  • But it takes the edge off the pain.
  • He had decisively taken the edge off trade union power.
  • Moneylarge sums of money-can take the edge off an ambitious person.
  • The burning wood takes the edge off the morning cold, and it helps brew our coffee.
  • The sun was warm on my back, but the south-easterly wind took the edge off the stifling heat.
  • This will take the edge off your anxiety.
  • This would certainly take the edge off the impending Apollo lunar landing.
► eff off!► can’t take your eyes off somebody/something► disappear/vanish from/off the face of the earth
  • A woman had fallen off and broken her pelvis.
  • Any crumbs which fell off the table were pounced on by big bronze lizards - skinks.
  • Apply moleskin or a Band-Aid and leave in place until it falls off naturally in bath or shower.
  • In those days, the sweat would fall off my hands and I'd hear it hitting the floor.
  • Keep the napkin square on your lap or it will fall off, and you may not drop anything on the floor.
  • The railing on the porch looks like it is going to fall off.
  • There were other dangers besides falling off the branch.
  • Too easy to fall off and be dragged around by the heel.
► somebody nearly/almost fell off their chair► it’s as easy as falling off a log► live off the fat of the land► finish something ↔ off► finish something ↔ off► finish somebody/something ↔ off► finish somebody ↔ off
  • Well, first off, I want to know what you've done with the money I gave you.
► send somebody off with a flea in their ear
  • Linda called me back and apologized for flying off the handle.
  • He just flew off the handle.
  • If last night hadn't happened, would she still have flown off the handle, sooner or later ...?
  • Lila flew off the handle and she realizes that.
  • Some people always fly off the handle, and often their anger is totally out of proportion to the problem in hand.
  • It was a relief to get off my feet for a while.
  • The doctor told me to stay off my feet for a few days.
  • But the stories never swept the reading public off its feet the way the Sherlock Holmes tales did.
  • He kind of swept me off my feet.
  • He was in livery, and told me he was rushed off his feet.
  • The boys aim only to get one over on the girls while the girls dream of being romantically swept off their feet.
  • They have not, therefore, been swept off their feet.
  • They placed a lavatory chain around his neck and hoisted him off his feet.
  • We were rushed off our feet yesterday.
► knock/lift etc somebody off their feet
  • All the sales assistants are run off their feet. The shop ought to take on more staff.
  • It's my son's birthday party tomorrow. I've been absolutely rushed off my feet getting ready for it.
  • Bus managers were expecting to be rushed off their feet.
  • He was in livery, and told me he was rushed off his feet.
  • Obviously, the emergency services are run off their feet.
  • There had been lots of problems, and they were rushed off their feet.
  • We were rushed off our feet yesterday.
► start/get off on the wrong/right foot
  • After 50yds fork right on to a track which climbs up Triscombe Combe.
  • At the first fork they must go left and at the next fork right and so on until they were challenged.
  • Then with a wave she forked left and was gone.
  • Bournemouth hopefully won't get off the floor.
  • He meant to get off, I think, but was petrified.
  • Not only do we punish those who get off welfare, we require little of those who stay on.
  • Now there was a solution, that is, if it ever got off the drawing board.
  • Oh yes, they're very good at theory but no bloody good at getting off their bums and looking for themselves!
  • Perhaps he could get off the hook by saying he would go in the morning?
  • We got to get off this here hill.
  • I'll get this off to you first thing in the morning.
  • She managed to get all the letters off before five o'clock.
  • And I said, well, but do they get it off?
  • Firms with shorter names like Boeing do not get chopped off.
  • He then got up off the floor and threatened to hit the labour master with his boots in his hand.
  • I see Chapman got sent off for Portsmouth.
  • Nathan gets and goes off in search of somewhere quiet, clutching a toilet roll and anxious anticipations.
  • Pick your head up to look too far down the road and get it lopped off.
  • Sometimes, a few cues from Deborah got them off and running.
  • To climb back into the presidential race, he must get abortion off the agenda.
  • And I said, well, but do they get it off?
  • Firms with shorter names like Boeing do not get chopped off.
  • He then got up off the floor and threatened to hit the labour master with his boots in his hand.
  • I see Chapman got sent off for Portsmouth.
  • Nathan gets and goes off in search of somewhere quiet, clutching a toilet roll and anxious anticipations.
  • Pick your head up to look too far down the road and get it lopped off.
  • Sometimes, a few cues from Deborah got them off and running.
  • To climb back into the presidential race, he must get abortion off the agenda.
  • And I said, well, but do they get it off?
  • Firms with shorter names like Boeing do not get chopped off.
  • He then got up off the floor and threatened to hit the labour master with his boots in his hand.
  • I see Chapman got sent off for Portsmouth.
  • Nathan gets and goes off in search of somewhere quiet, clutching a toilet roll and anxious anticipations.
  • Pick your head up to look too far down the road and get it lopped off.
  • Sometimes, a few cues from Deborah got them off and running.
  • To climb back into the presidential race, he must get abortion off the agenda.
  • And I said, well, but do they get it off?
  • Firms with shorter names like Boeing do not get chopped off.
  • He then got up off the floor and threatened to hit the labour master with his boots in his hand.
  • I see Chapman got sent off for Portsmouth.
  • Nathan gets and goes off in search of somewhere quiet, clutching a toilet roll and anxious anticipations.
  • Pick your head up to look too far down the road and get it lopped off.
  • Sometimes, a few cues from Deborah got them off and running.
  • To climb back into the presidential race, he must get abortion off the agenda.
► get off to a good/bad etc start
  • Bournemouth hopefully won't get off the floor.
  • He meant to get off, I think, but was petrified.
  • However, when at last she got off he was nowhere to be seen, and she felt another thrill of triumph.
  • Not only do we punish those who get off welfare, we require little of those who stay on.
  • Now there was a solution, that is, if it ever got off the drawing board.
  • Oh yes, they're very good at theory but no bloody good at getting off their bums and looking for themselves!
  • Perhaps he could get off the hook by saying he would go in the morning?
  • Bournemouth hopefully won't get off the floor.
  • He meant to get off, I think, but was petrified.
  • However, when at last she got off he was nowhere to be seen, and she felt another thrill of triumph.
  • Not only do we punish those who get off welfare, we require little of those who stay on.
  • Now there was a solution, that is, if it ever got off the drawing board.
  • Oh yes, they're very good at theory but no bloody good at getting off their bums and looking for themselves!
  • Perhaps he could get off the hook by saying he would go in the morning?
  • We got to get off this here hill.
  • "Did you give him the money?" "No, I told him where to get off."
► get off your butt/ass
  • Now though, the gloves are off.
  • As Mike moved towards my table the two children left him, going off across the terrace in different directions.
  • He was a miner and he went off to the First World War and got killed.
  • My great-grandparents were aghast at the idea of a married woman, with a child, going off to school.
  • Ramsay went off to try to recruit more men in his part of Lothian.
  • Remi was gone off in the dark to get another box.
  • She had just put him inside her when all of a sudden the music got louder and those cannons started going off.
  • The female sits inside the nest while the male goes off collecting nest material.
  • The referee then went off the field to consult an officer at the touchline who waved us off the pitch.
► go off well/badly etc► go off on one
  • Construction of the theme park never got off the ground.
  • And the guerrilla strategy for influencing senior partners never got off the ground.
  • But it has taken the project some time to get off the ground.
  • He's been trying to get off the ground since the mid-60s.
  • He laughed, because I was still to get off the ground.
  • High-definition television, still getting off the ground, is sharper but still too poor for text.
  • It never got off the ground.
  • One Tucson businessman announced that he was organizing such an effort in early 1995, but it never got off the ground.
  • The group was slow to get off the ground, despite an encouraging article about the group in the Rotherham Advertiser.
  • Could the upper management of a leading firm like Merrill Lynch be caught so entirely off guard?
  • I said it suddenly like that, just blurted it out, and I guess it caught him off guard.
  • Penelope flinched, angry at her thoughts, and at the girl who had caught her off guard.
  • She really caught me off guard with her comments.
  • The president faces issues that can catch him off guard and undermine his authority.
  • The question caught Firebug off guard.
  • The words caught him off guard.
  • This caught me completely off guard.
► go off half cocked
  • Hands off my coat!
  • Get your hands off my car!
  • And hands off ... workers anger at factory ban on rings.
  • Couldn't keep our hands off each other.
  • I can't keep my damned hands off you!
  • I could not keep my hands off them.
  • The government should keep its hands off content.
  • They had been unable to keep their hands off each other.
  • They should stay out where they belong - keep their hands off our people.
  • As if now I know it will soon be off my hands time has started to move forward again.
  • Other men's wives did proper jobs once the children were off their hands.
  • Those two girls will soon be off his hands.
  • I take my hat off to those front row men.
  • Jan starts hers at four, for which I take my hat off to her.
  • Whatever it was though, I take my hat off to Babs.
► haul off and hit/punch/kick somebody
  • Also I don't want him to try to have it off with some one else.
  • Dave Mellor did not have it away with that repellent tart.
  • Rush round here every Wednesday afternoon, have it off with Angy and rush back.
  • Was I going to have it off with this woman and a couple of goats?
  • By this time Irene was emitting a steady gurgle of contentment, when she wasn't laughing her head off.
  • If Hancock himself had been around, he would have doubtless squirmed as the audience laughed their heads off.
  • Joey stood in the door laughing his head off and Noreen peered over his shoulder, her hands over her mouth.
  • Louise: Ursula would have laughed her head off.
  • Old Warleigh would laugh his head off if I put reasons like that to him.
  • Then he tips her down and she's screaming her head off.
  • Tony races past, laughing his head off.
  • You were screaming your head off.
► be out of/off your head
  • A geek is a carnival performer who bites the heads off live chickens and snakes.
  • He had no right to bite the head off one of his staunchest friends.
  • I could have bitten her head off.
  • Just to bite their heads off.
  • Not two minutes in his company and she was biting his head off.
  • The gusts are becoming malevolent, snapping the heads off the waves like daisies.
  • This Katherine bites the heads off rag-dolls and threatens her sister Bianca with a pair of pinking shears.
  • You could trust him not to take the mickey, or to turn round and bite your head off.
► head something ↔ off► head somebody ↔ off
  • Ally's jealous that Matt and Ceara hit it off.
  • Billie had joined Lily and they had obviously hit it off.
  • Glad you and Edward have hit it off.
  • I think, in the end, they just didn't hit it off.
  • If two gardeners hit it off, they can go private through electronic messages in a sort of letter-writing setup.
  • Knowing both of them, I knew they would hit it off when they got to know one another better.
  • She and I hit it off immediately.
  • They hit it off from the first.
  • They ended up in the same case study group and hit it off immediately.
► hold somebody ↔ off
  • People will think they let Charmaine off the hook because she's a woman.
  • And he was at the heart of two of the double plays that got Johns off the hook.
  • And this time there is no second match to get anyone off the hook!
  • Apologising for ourselves Apologising and being self-deprecating can let you off the hook.
  • Home striker Paul Crimmen let them off the hook on a number of occasions and Horsham had two goals disallowed.
  • I emphasize the tense because Congress has the habit of letting itself off the hook when convenient.
  • It could even, in a pinch, get him off the hook for the nightly walk to the monument.
  • Why, she wondered, when she had effectively let him off the hook?
  • You could let them off the hook, or you could reel them in.
► leave/take the phone off the hook
  • The phone was ringing off the hook here all weekend.
  • People were queuing up for the new Harry Potter book to arrive - hot off the press.
► keep something ↔ off
  • And keep your hands off Maria.
  • But today with his mind too preoccupied to work he seemed quite unable to keep his hands off it.
  • Couldn't keep our hands off each other.
  • I could not keep my hands off them.
  • The government should keep its hands off content.
  • They had been unable to keep their hands off each other.
  • They should stay out where they belong - keep their hands off our people.
► keep (somebody) off something► keep off something► keep something ↔ off► kick somebody off something► out of kilter/off kilter► get your kit off
  • Cierra's performance knocked my socks off!
  • And yet the correlations just knock my socks off..
  • The current crop of non-Windows databases can knock the socks off their predecessors.
  • This in-your-face marketing could be forgiven if the food absolutely knocked your socks off.
► knock somebody off their pedestal/perch
  • It certainly knocks spots off anything attempted by the newly-Thatcherising Conservatives in the run-up to the 1979 election.
  • You kids, knock it off in there!
  • And, how was it, no, if they knocked it off.
  • I knocked it off as I ran past.
  • No, you didn't have to knock it off you had to choose thingies on a card.
  • The following day we could knock it off in few hours before returning to base.
► I’ll knock your head/block off
  • And I know Frank was knocked off.
  • By five he had knocked off most of the items on his priority list.
  • Everyone else appeared to have some sort of credit card that knocked off up to 25 percent.
  • In Newcastle residents would have £32 knocked off their £349 bill if the Government assessment of spending had been more accurate.
  • It took us some time to get to Kitumbeine and the district officer had knocked off.
  • Suppose I tell you the name of the guy who knocked off Mahoney.
  • Their run through the NCAAs last year, when they knocked off three No. 1 seeds, was no fluke.
  • What do you do with an evil one, who is knocking off the neighbors?
► knock something ↔ off► knock something ↔ off► knock something ↔ off► knock somebody ↔ off► knock something ↔ off► lay somebody ↔ off
  • An estimated 3 million workers have been laid off be-tween 1989 and 1995 as corporate profits have soared.
  • He and Dean had just been laid off during a seniority lapse because of a drastic reduction of crews.
  • He must lay off the kif.
  • The sort of business which flourished in the eighties but suffered in the recession hit nineties, laying off workers.
  • The station has laid off one-third of its staff.
  • Three years later, it reported its worst quarterly loss ever and laid off 16 percent of its work force.
  • We must lay off the booze even during Holy Communion.
  • We sought out people who had been laid off from large corporations and were forced to create new lives.
  • An estimated 3 million workers have been laid off be-tween 1989 and 1995 as corporate profits have soared.
  • He and Dean had just been laid off during a seniority lapse because of a drastic reduction of crews.
  • He must lay off the kif.
  • The sort of business which flourished in the eighties but suffered in the recession hit nineties, laying off workers.
  • The station has laid off one-third of its staff.
  • Three years later, it reported its worst quarterly loss ever and laid off 16 percent of its work force.
  • We must lay off the booze even during Holy Communion.
  • We sought out people who had been laid off from large corporations and were forced to create new lives.
► lay something ↔ off
  • Andy leads off up large, friable flakes, hair plastered to his head but now mercifully sheltered.
  • Bruins coach Steve Kasper led off.
  • He retired the first 12 men he faced before David Justice led off the fifth with a double.
  • Newman spotted the track leading off to the right and swung away from the main road.
  • On the first floor, leading off a covered balcony, were the chambers of the fellows and scholars.
  • Ramirez led off, and Mussina needed 13 pitches to strike him out.
  • The other came after his walk to lead off the ninth with the score tied at seven.
  • Then he violently shoved her down the small flight of stairs that led off their bedroom to the bathroom.
► leave somebody/something off (something)► let somebody off (something)► let something ↔ off► level something ↔ off/out
  • Significantly others have reacted with ambivalence: That exercise on support really took the lid off things in our school.
  • Tilda, unabashed, was out in the pantry, helping the ward orderlies take the lids off the supper trays.
  • I'm letting you off lightly this time, but next time you could end up in jail.
  • Bill Stubbly had got off lightly - so far.
  • But that doesn't mean that the person responsible should be allowed to get off lightly.
  • He'd got off lightly with the men earlier.
  • Mind you, Little Liz got off lightly.
  • Really she was getting off lightly with a few glasses of bleach.
  • Reno got off lightly compared to Curran.
  • You got off lightly in the alley tonight.
  • The basement was always off limits to us kids.
  • Consequently there is no topic that is off limits for discussion, even if a few are off limits for experimentation.
  • However; it was off limits for Robbie to hit or scratch his sister.
  • Nearly one-quarter of the land will be completely off limits to development.
  • People's reaction to loss remains one of society's least understood and most off limits topics for discussion.
  • Rumour has it that these are children with learning difficulties; off limits to our group of visiting helpers.
  • Social Security, 25 percent of all spending for other than interest on the debt, has been declared off limits.
  • Unlike most group discussions, nothing was off limits.
► it fell off the back of a lorry
  • Antonia, as the year pressed on, was gradually dropping off the map.
  • Augustine somehow resists every attempt to wipe it off the map.
  • But after only one spoonful, I could tell this stuff was off the map.
  • Eleven years ago, highway officials voted, in essence, to take Route 66 off the map.
  • Finally, he peeled the markers off the map, leaving it blank once more.
  • In El Salvador they've just had an earthquake, and whole towns were wiped off the map.
  • We're slipping off the map.
  • We had quite literally walked off the map.
► off the mark/wide of the mark
  • Salad crops, however, are quick off the mark.
  • This time, they were slow off the mark.
  • Not one of them is focused, on message or safe to be left alone with a computer.
  • So memories are made of spatiotemporal patterns like those on message boards.
  • But I think he's lovely, and you can tell a mile off that he likes you.
  • He's a hawkeye, and can spot one a mile off, like that faraway kestrel.
  • Our sportsdesk can spot from a mile off a person who can not tell an in-swinger from a bouncer.
  • At other times, the surroundings helped to take my mind off it.
  • I guess there is nothing that will get your mind off every-thing like golf will.
  • Instead they tried to take their minds off the poster campaign by providing weekend entertainment.
  • It takes your mind off how you feel.
  • Kirsty chattered excitedly throughout the journey, helping to keep Shiona's mind off her anxieties.
  • Letters could take my mind off most things.
  • To take his mind off his worries, I suggested that he wrote out a message for his family.
  • When the other guy thinks you are cheating, it can take his mind off the game.
► it/that is a load/weight off somebody’s mind
  • In synopsis the new play sounds rather like his best-known work, Noises Off.
  • Steve Cassidy hears the noises off.
► be off your nut► catch/throw somebody off-balance► off-off Broadway
  • I called on the off-chance that Patty might be home.
  • I just came on the off-chance.
  • I rang Otto on the off-chance.
  • I walked over to the wardrobe and opened the door just on the off-chance.
  • It was a long way to drive on the off-chance that something would come of it.
  • The card is too expensive on the off-chance I could get in an away game during the season.
  • There was no time to contact him, so I came on the off-chance.
► catch/take somebody off-guard
  • Much of the palace is off limits to the public.
  • The officer told the soldiers that the town was off limits.
  • Consequently there is no topic that is off limits for discussion, even if a few are off limits for experimentation.
  • However; it was off limits for Robbie to hit or scratch his sister.
  • Income from interest, dividends or profits from stock sales would be off limits.
  • Unlike most group discussions, nothing was off limits.
  • Mason works out everyday in the off-season.
  • Travel packages to Hawaii are dirt cheap during the off-season.
  • Parking is a problem but the parish council are working to get a proper car park to give off-street parking.
  • Without the creation of new off-street parking areas, this problem is likely to intensify.
  • It rained off and on for the whole afternoon.
  • A large blue diamond was flashing on and off.
  • After she had left the office, Wyatt sat and listened to the ventilator go on and off.
  • After studying accountancy at Chicago University, he worked on and off as an investment analyst.
  • My husband has suffered from heartburn on and off for years and has recently been diagnosed as having a hiatus hernia.
  • The spokeswoman says Disney has 50 to 70 toll-free numbers, which it turns on and off to coincide with special promotions.
  • Then we went for a walk, with him continually flying on and off my shoulder.
  • There are thousands of tax-paying jobs generated on and off the reservation.
  • With the other type switch on and off is non-automatic.
  • He wasn't interested in the heavy political stuff which bored the pants off most people.
  • It took ten minutes to reach Honey Cottage, with Yanto trying his best to scare the pants off Mary.
  • Lovely people who scared the pants off him.
  • The tests scare the pants off many managers.
  • Though, mind you, it scares the pants off poor old Crumwallis.
  • She beat the pants off me last time we played.
  • He is aware of his competitors-and he beats the pants off them.
► pass off well/badly etc
  • The agents managed to pass themselves off as wealthy businessmen.
  • They tried to pass the crystals off as diamonds.
  • Anyone trying to pass these absurdities off as fiction would have been laughed out of Hollywood.
  • As a childless wife can only suffer, there would be no point in passing an intersexual off as a woman.
  • But what more could you expect from the bunch of monkeys trying to pass themselves off as judges?
  • Equally, it is an offence for a private company to pass itself off as being a public company and viceversa.
  • I wonder how many years unqualified people could pass themselves off as consultant thoracic surgeons, for example, without detection.
  • This is the kind of thing a man who passes himself off as a fashion consultant can be expected to know.
  • Though the doubt is really an expression of not-being-committed, it passes itself off as an excuse for not-committing.
  • We could go in and pass ourselves off as invited guests by being brazen.
  • Like most politicians he had all his answers off pat, but he didn't have anything particularly new or interesting to say.
  • She only had to repeat the lines once or twice, and she'd have them down pat.
► pawn somebody/something ↔ off as something► pay something ↔ off► pay somebody ↔ off► pay somebody ↔ off► peel something ↔ off► peel off $20/£50 etc► piss somebody ↔ off► play off somebody/something► pull something ↔ off
  • Both of those editions were pulled off the racks by supermarket chains that had received complaints from customers.
  • I pulled off the road in the Lamar Valley at the trail to Crystal Bench and parked in mud.
  • Morland bosses say they've pulled off the escape of the decade Male speaker Even our staff backed us up.
  • Skill Oxton just failed to pull off victory at Hightown on a rain affected wicket.
  • We pulled off the sheets and untied the prisoner from the post.
  • Yet in February 1990 he pulled off one of cricket's all-time miracles.
► put something ↔ off► put somebody ↔ off
  • All the noise from the crowd put Alison off her game.
  • Don't let her put you off, it's a really good movie.
  • Seles couldn't concentrate on the game - the photographers were putting her off.
  • Stop staring at me, it's putting me off.
  • That weekend put me off camping for the rest of my life!
  • When she told me she worked in an abattoir it rather put me off her.
  • When you know an artist used to abuse his wife and children it does tend to put you off his work.
► put somebody off (something)► put somebody off (something)
  • Both of those editions were pulled off the racks by supermarket chains that had received complaints from customers.
  • Each time I said I liked one, this guy pulls it off the rack.
  • High ready-to-wear prices, but none the less gowns available off the rack.
  • What I hear you saying is that I have lived my life as if I bought my clothes off the rack.
  • But it was the news pages that had really gone off the rails.
  • Has something gone off the rails here?
  • Things started to go off the rails, however, with the Fiat Multipla.
  • Off the record, police officers are saying they are more and more unwilling to arrest those found in possession of small amounts of cannabis.
  • Officials, speaking off the record, said they were still worried about the situation.
  • Strictly off the record, my feeling is that we are going to lose the election.
  • I shaved and showered, clipping two seconds off the record, and was soon out on the highway heading for Faketown.
  • Nothing is off the record here.
  • Skaters and coaches will admit this, off the record.
  • The rest of the discussion, says Himmelstein, was off the record.
  • There is no off the record.
  • They said in 1976 that a tuned track could shave as much as 7 seconds off the record for the mile.
  • Well, I don't blame you, after ... All right: from here on you're totally off the record.
  • You want to be off the record?
  • I don't just want people to get their rocks off.
  • You're a rock group so people get their rocks off.
► be off your rocker► run something ↔ off► run somebody off something► run something ↔ off
  • Boyd seems to enjoy running off at the mouth to the press.
  • That never used to be a fault of his, running off at the mouth.
  • To what smug labors and running off at the mouth!
► run something ↔ off
  • And why should I try to throw you off the scent?
  • But he'd got to put Graham off the scent.
  • Or were they trying to put him off the scent?
  • That put them off the scent.
  • The aspirant towards a more spiritual way of life will be thrown entirely off the scent.
  • The father, be he absentee or abusive, gets off scot-free.
  • Beyond him, I could see the camp coming alive.
  • Birds, like planes, usually face into the wind, so they do not see the plane coming.
  • He looked up to see Norm coming down the driveway.
  • One of the man-things had seen them coming and shouted a warning.
  • Sarah Fleming saw them coming through the window of the front room.
  • She saw him coming and intended to give him a wide berth.
  • That Salvor Hardin had seen it coming made it none the more pleasant.
  • We were heading for the landing zone and could even see a chopper coming toward us.
► send something ↔ off
  • But in his next match he was sent off for twice attacking the goalie.
  • Damiano Tommasi paid for it minutes later when he was sent off for felling Robbie Fowler.
  • His nose was broken in two places by a player he had sent off for violent play.
  • Hull were reduced to 12 men on the hour when Mark Jones was sent off for throwing a punch at Gary Tees.
  • I see Chapman got sent off for Portsmouth.
  • Newbridge substitute Stuart Griffiths was also sent off for stamping against Pontypridd, just six minutes after coming on.
  • Some of these will be on the periodical shelves at your library and others you might want to send off for.
  • Then, Nutt the player appeared to make a retaliatory late tackle, and after being penalised was sent off for dissent.
► send somebody ↔ off► set something ↔ off► set something ↔ off► set something ↔ off► set something ↔ off► set somebody off► set something off against tax
  • All he did was shoot his mouth off a little.
  • So you can't shoot your mouth off.
► show something ↔ off► show something ↔ off► shut something ↔ off
  • He shuts himself off from his two young daughters and composes laments to his dead wife.
  • I shut myself off from the female race and channelled all my energy into my work.
  • Students who avoid learning even the basics can shut themselves off from important sources in the field.
  • These people are completely shut off from the rest of society.
  • Virginia and Peter Stillman were shut off from him now.
► sign somebody off► sign something ↔ off► it’s no skin off somebody’s nose
  • Diesels are condemned by some for being too slow off the mark.
  • This time, they were slow off the mark.
  • And yet the correlations just knock my socks off..
  • So, he popped down to my office, stuck this demo on the turntable and it just blew my socks off.
  • The current crop of non-Windows databases can knock the socks off their predecessors.
  • This in-your-face marketing could be forgiven if the food absolutely knocked your socks off.
► sod off► split something ↔ off► square something ↔ off► start something ↔ off► start somebody ↔ off► start somebody off
  • Recess is a good chance for kids to blow off steam.
  • It was recreation hour, explained Brother Andrew with a smile, and the Brothers were letting off steam.
  • Jody lets her blow off steam first.
  • Others have behavioural problems and need to let off steam in a safe and controlled setting.
  • She just needed to blow off steam.
  • So kicking the cat, biting a towel or pounding a pillow aren't really much use, except for letting off steam.
  • We let off steam in graffiti, vandalism and football hooliganism.
  • You got upset, blew off steam.
  • You want to let off steam?
  • Human experimenters have found it surprisingly difficult to put bats off their stride by playing loud artificial ultrasound at them.
  • Ancient law, it seems, was on their side; thousands were struck off, and more feared to be.
  • Do you want me to be struck off?
  • He was struck off in 1998, but still receives a National Health Service pension.
  • He was struck off the medical register for his pains.
  • In serious breaches of these codes, the professional can be struck off the professional register. 5.
  • Then her head was struck off and fixed on gallows and her body thrown into the pit.
► put somebody off their stroke
  • Donald absolutely swept me off my feet.
  • She's just waiting to be swept off her feet by a handsome stranger.
  • Then Peter came into my life and swept me off my feet.
► take something ↔ off► take something off (something)► take somebody ↔ off► talk the hind leg(s) off a donkey► talk somebody’s ear off
  • As for going off at tangents, my dear, I do it myself, hormone balance not withstanding.
  • Loretta's mind went off at a tangent.
► tear somebody off a strip/tear a strip off somebody► tee somebody off► tell somebody where to go/where to get off► give somebody a ticking off
  • A name which trips off the tongue.
  • Most have spent all their sentient life as paid-up devotees, and the glib phrases soon roll off the tongue.
  • ""How old is Chris?" "I don't know off the top of my head."
  • "Do you remember her name?" "Not off the top of my head."
  • "How much is the house worth?" "Off the top of my head, I'd say it's worth maybe $160,000."
  • There are some good restaurants around here, but I can't tell you their names off the top of my head.
  • I keep doing stuff off the top of my head.
  • In my imagination, I can lift off the top of my head, just like a lid.
  • It was all off the top of my head.
  • And the full bellows tongue is topped with Cambrelle covered padding.
  • Eaten raw in salads, it becomes more interesting if it is topped with herbs and a good quality olive oil.
  • Even the boldly striped mooring posts were topped with a dollop of white, rather like gaudy Cornetto ice-creams.
  • The compost is topped with a layer of pea gravel.
  • The wall was topped with rolls of barbed wire and jagged ends of glass stuck into the eight-foot concrete slabs.
  • Clarisa tossed it all off as fate.
  • When the brandy arrived, he filled a glass and tossed it off, in a gesture of childish defiance.
  • Clarisa tossed it all off as fate.
  • When the brandy arrived, he filled a glass and tossed it off, in a gesture of childish defiance.
  • Clarisa tossed it all off as fate.
  • When the brandy arrived, he filled a glass and tossed it off, in a gesture of childish defiance.
  • After debating, I decided that I should not get off the track.
  • I almost wet in my pants before I got off the track to relieve myself.
  • His name, "Roberto Carlos," just trips off the tongue.
  • A name which trips off the tongue.
  • I am sure some of the guys in my workshop think I am off my trolley.
  • Stuart Baxter must be off his trolley, sending some one like that.
► turn something ↔ off► turn something ↔ off
  • Organizers are considering turning off the air-conditioning for the event, or using it only sporadically.
  • Pulling up to a stop sign, she touches the clutch and the engine turns off.
  • She turned off the water and stepped out on to the rug, dried herself, and dressed in jeans and a shirt.
  • Summertime is a great time to turn off that computer and get outdoors.
  • Then he stepped out of the room, turning off his box.
  • There is no doubt that the ventilator may be turned off when in fact, the patient is already dead.
  • With a gun held at his head he was forced to turn off all the alarms.
► turn somebody ↔ off► turn somebody ↔ off► fall off the wagon► walk somebody off their feet► walk somebody’s legs off► walk something ↔ off
  • A reporter for the Wheeling Intelligencer had just walked off the structure when the catastrophe occurred.
  • Emotionlessly she kissed me in the vineyard and walked off down the row.
  • He walked off disconsolate: he knew he had played well enough to win and had not.
  • It makes the software easier to display and harder to walk off with.
  • Stewart walked off with the look of one who was the sole survivor of a particularly nasty plane crash.
  • The sergeant was tempted to walk off but did not.
  • We had quite literally walked off the map.
  • When he walked off towards the car park Henry didn't bother following.
  • A Whitney Houston tape echoed off the walls.
  • Before I could grasp what was happening, I had bounced off the wall and was crumpling on to the floor in pain.
  • I jumped down off the wall and joined my sister who was standing behind them listening.
  • The husband tried to seize a portrait of her, an oil painting, rip it right off the wall.
  • The noise of conversation from the hall below bounced off the walls around them.
  • There's a woman just up the road so I hop off the wall and run after her.
► warn somebody ↔ off► warn somebody off (doing) something► wash something ↔ off► like water off a duck’s back
  • After the novelty wears off, the Internet can be a very dull place.
  • Once the novelty has worn off, most of these kitchen gadgets just sit in the cupboard, unused for years.
  • But as time wears on, the novelty wears off and dissatisfaction results.
  • Maybe Antonietta herself will tire of me when the novelty wears off.
  • Come in, take the weight off your feet.
  • Make the bed - then you can lie down and take the weight off your feet while we talk.
► be well-off for something► you don’t know when you’re well-off► the wheels come off something
  • I'd like to wipe that stupid grin off your face.
► wipe something off the face of the earth/wipe something off the map
  • I work my butt off for you, while that restaurant is doing worse and worse.
  • I worked my butt off in basketball and stayed on the varsity-in fact, did well.
  • I had to give the ball up, and then I had work my butt off to get it back.
  • In short, I worked my butt off.
  • Meanwhile, Inspiral Carpets went in at grass roots level and worked their butts off in the clubs.
  • You could have worked your butt off helping a rep and you finally got the rep doing everything right.
  • Alec Davidson, for example, was one of those who came off worst.
► take the wraps off something► write somebody/something ↔ off► write something ↔ off► write something ↔ off► write something ↔ off
  • We just got off on the wrong foot the other day.
  • Unfortunately, Pope got off on the wrong foot with his new troops.
  • We got off on the wrong foot the other day and it was my fault.
► put years on somebody/take years off somebody
 to kill someone:  The guy who did this ought to be offed.
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