browned-off

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adjective

informal thoroughly discouraged or disheartened; fed up

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QUIZ YOURSELF ON AFFECT VS. EFFECT!

In effect, this quiz will prove whether or not you have the skills to know the difference between “affect” and “effect.”

Question 1 of 7

The rainy weather could not ________ my elated spirits on my graduation day.

affect

effect

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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

Example sentences from the Web for browned-off

Although the blood-spattered offices will be off-limits, staff have vowed to continue producing the magazine.
France Mourns—and Hunts|Nico Hines, Christopher Dickey|January 8, 2015|DAILY BEAST
A passing off-duty school safety officer named Fred Lucas said that he had been told the man was a drug dealer.
Shot Down During the NYPD Slowdown|Michael Daly|January 7, 2015|DAILY BEAST
The NOPD fired Knight in 1973 for stealing lumber from a construction site as an off-duty cop.
The Louisiana Racists Who Courted Steve Scalise|Jason Berry|January 3, 2015|DAILY BEAST
The off-year special election into which Duke threw himself drew little media notice at first.
The Louisiana Racists Who Courted Steve Scalise|Jason Berry|January 3, 2015|DAILY BEAST

Aaron Paul may play a young Han Solo in the first Star Wars spin-off.
Juiciest ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ Rumors (and Some Debunked Ones)|Rich Goldstein|January 3, 2015|DAILY BEAST
A far-off volley rumbled over the plain, and a few birds stirred uneasily among the trees.
The Red Year|Louis Tracy
Jean was to be an architect—God knows why—but Aristide settled it, definitely, off-hand.
The Joyous Adventures of Aristide Pujol|William J. Locke
In favorable parts of the trail he must do better than that, to off-set losses of time where the going was most difficult.
Motor Matt's "Century" Run|Stanley R. Matthews
There was something about the man that Matt liked, in spite of the deceit he had practised at the start-off of their acquaintance.
Motor Matt's "Century" Run|Stanley R. Matthews
She did not take the broad, beaten road which led to the far-off plantation of Valmonde.
The Awakening and Selected Short Stories|Kate Chopin

Idioms and Phrases with browned-off

browned off

Very angry, as in When she locked me out I was really browned off. This expression originated as Royal Air Force slang for “disgusted” and “depressed” in the late 1930s and had crossed the Atlantic by World War II. It gradually came to be used more widely as a slangy synonym for “infuriated.” One theory for its origin, mentioned by Eric Partridge in his slang dictionary, is that it alludes to brass buttons on a uniform turning brown from lack of polishing. Partridge noted, however, that the “predominant Army opinion” was that the word had the same literal meaning as buggered.

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