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• off-the-cuff
  off-the-cuff

  adjective

  with little or no preparation; extemporaneous; impromptu.
• off the cuff
  off the cuff

  Impromptu, extemporaneous, as in His speech was entirely off the cuff. This term supposedly alludes to the practice of speakers making last-minute notes on the cuff of a shirtsleeve. [1930s]

off-the-cuff

American  

[awf-thuh-kuhf, of-] / ˈɔf ðəˈkʌf, ˈɒf- /

adjective

1. with little or no preparation; extemporaneous; impromptu.

   a speaker with a good off-the-cuff delivery.

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off the cuff Idioms  

1. Impromptu, extemporaneous, as in His speech was entirely off the cuff. This term supposedly alludes to the practice of speakers making last-minute notes on the cuff of a shirtsleeve. [1930s]

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Etymology

Origin of off-the-cuff

First recorded in 1940–45

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

off-the-cuff off the cuff

This year, candidates are increasingly pivoting to social media to post snappy, off-the-cuff videos that could fuel momentum for their campaigns if they go viral.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 13, 2026

Musician Dougie Breslin, a regular Sunday night performer at the Derry bar, captured the off-the-cuff performance on video ahead of a gig of his own.

From BBC ● Feb. 10, 2026

"We need more AI immigrants to help us on manufacturing floors and do work that maybe we've decided not to do anymore," said Huang, whose off-the-cuff remarks have become a popular CES tradition.

From Barron's ● Jan. 7, 2026

His work, like his life, seemed like a running improvisation, and the prose work that became “A Child’s Christmas in Wales” offers a nod to the author’s off-the-cuff sensibility.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 19, 2025

We’ve all witnessed with embarrassment the off-the-cuff speaker crashing and burning at a wedding, or the panicky TV presenter “drying” on air.

From "Words Like Loaded Pistols" by Sam Leith

It was an "off the cuff comment", says Andrew, but the phrase haunts them to this day.

From BBC ● May 11, 2026

So no one should think this was just Sotomayor riffing off the cuff.

From Slate ● Apr. 10, 2026

President Franklin Delano Roosevelt suddenly announced it at the 1943 Casablanca conference as an aim of the World War II Allies, he did so off the cuff.

From MarketWatch ● Mar. 12, 2026

The name came up once, off the cuff, and stuck.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 3, 2026

Not a bad lie, considering it was off the cuff.

From "The Name of the Wind" by Patrick Rothfuss