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 .

Related Words

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