put off

British  

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)

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noun

1. a pretext or delay

put off Idioms  

1. 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

See Examples For:

put off

Widening a business’s target audience can put off earlier core consumers.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 23, 2026

"It is low - 27%," Parr admitted, suggesting that people may be being put off by myths that signing up could affect their insurance premiums.

From BBC ● Oct. 11, 2026

When the Beatles released “Rubber Soul,” their second album of 1965, some of their most loyal teenybopper fans were put off.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 6, 2026

“You have really a story where Gen Z is really put off by party,” Deckman said.

From Salon ● Oct. 2, 2026

Neither did I wish to be further put off by Wilkins.

From "Double Helix" by James D. Watson

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Related Words

• adjourn
• postpone
• reschedule
• shelve
• suspend

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