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View synonyms for put off

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)
“Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged” 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012


noun

  1. a pretext or delay
“Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged” 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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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 .
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Example Sentences

But that hasn't put off the hundreds of men in the UK and US who have taken part in a recent craze for lookalike competitions.

From BBC

Prostate cancer is not a death sentence these days, but it’s also not something you put off.

“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

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

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

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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.

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