put off

verb

1. tr, adverb to postpone or delay

   they have put off the dance until tomorrow

2. tr, adverb to evade (a person) by postponement or delay

   they tried to put him off, but he came anyway

3. tr, adverb to confuse; disconcert

   he was put off by her appearance

4. tr, preposition to cause to lose interest in or enjoyment of

   the accident put him off driving

5. intr, adverb nautical to be launched off from shore or from a ship

   we put off in the lifeboat towards the ship

6. archaic.
   tr, adverb to remove (clothes)

noun

1. a pretext or delay

Idioms and Phrases

Delay or postpone, as in He always puts off paying his bills . This idiom, dating from the late 1300s, gave rise to the proverb Never put off until tomorrow what you can do today , first recorded in the late 1300s (in Chaucer's Tale of Melibee ) and repeated ever since. Also see put one off .

Example Sentences

“And more so knowing I have got a child who is coming up to driving age, who is now put off from wanting to learn to drive because she is so aware of the dangers.”

From BBC

Erin Griffiths, 16, can get her provisional licence next year but said she already has anxiety and is planning to put off lessons.

From BBC

Others are put off by the process, which can take months to years of submitting paperwork, attending hearings and waiting for final determination.

From Los Angeles Times

Ucas has warned that young people are being put off by a range of barriers, including:

From BBC

Raising tuition fees would be unpopular, and there is a risk that if maintenance support doesn’t increase, students from the lowest income families could also be put off going to university.

From BBC

Related Words

• adjourn
• hold off
• postpone
• reschedule
• shelve
• suspend