castoff
thrown away; rejected; discarded: Out of a few pieces of castoff clothing she made herself a presentable new outfit.
a person or thing that has been thrown away or rejected: I refuse to accept second hand merchandise—some other person's castoffs.Many immigrants felt like castoffs, marginalized by national and global economic forces.
Printing. the estimate by a compositor of how many pages copy will occupy when set in type.
to reject or discard: He soon cast off the shackles of his repressive upbringing.
to let go or let loose, as a vessel or its ropes from a mooring; set sail or begin a voyage: We were about to cast off on a three-day cruise along the coast of British Columbia.
Textiles. to make (the final stitches) in a piece of knitting and remove them from the needle.
Printing. to determine how much space or type will be occupied by (a given amount of text).
to throw (a falcon) off from the fist to pursue game.
Origin of castoff
1Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use castoff in a sentence
The boys wear what look like cast-off gym clothes with sandals.
Whatever You Do Someone Will Die. A Short Story About Impossible Choices in Iraq | Nathan Bradley Bethea | August 31, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTAround the world, people are putting garbage and cast-off materials to productive use.
Does he pick up yet another identity, a cast-off item left on a barstool?
‘Mad Men’ Season 6 Review: Triumphant, Lyrical, and Way Existential | Jace Lacob | April 3, 2013 | THE DAILY BEASTThat little chapel, he continues, which contains the cast-off garments of his soul, is bright with solid silver.
The Catacombs of Rome | William Henry WithrowHe has delivered the two heads of our great society into the hands of one of its cast-off branches!
The Double Four | E. Phillips Oppenheim
He was dressed in pants made of old sailcloth, and the tattered cast-off blouse of a Union soldier.
The Boys of '61 | Charles Carleton Coffin.This dealer in cast-off clothes, getting lively as she talked, pictured herself unconsciously while telling of others.
Unconscious Comedians | Honore de BalzacThe water-line is strewn with cast-off salmon heads and entrails.
Over the Rocky Mountains to Alaska | Charles Warren Stoddard
British Dictionary definitions for cast-off
(prenominal) thrown away; abandoned: cast-off shoes
a person or thing that has been discarded or abandoned
printing an estimate of the amount of space that a piece of copy will occupy when printed in a particular size and style of type
to remove (mooring lines) that hold (a vessel) to a dock
to knot (a row of stitches, esp the final row) in finishing off knitted or woven material
printing to estimate the amount of space that will be taken up by (a book, piece of copy, etc) when it is printed in a particular size and style of type
(intr) (in Scottish country dancing) to perform a progressive movement during which each partner of a couple dances separately behind one line of the set and then reunites with the other in their original position in the set or in a new position
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
Other Idioms and Phrases with castoff
Discard, reject, as in He cast off his clothes and jumped in the pool. This term was already used figuratively in Miles Coverdale's translation of the Bible (1535): “Thy mother ... that hath cast off her housebonds and her children” (Ezekiel 16:45).
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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