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

“To deny that only prolongs the situation and puts off any way of reckoning with it. We have to face it in order to understand that it’s within our human nature.”

From The Wall Street Journal

That didn’t put off Louis, who rented Daniel a high-rise apartment on Wilshire Boulevard.

From Los Angeles Times

But progress has been slowed by lower than anticipated demand, with many consumers put off by higher upfront costs and still patchy charging infrastructure.

From Barron's

I put off getting into my bread allowance as long as I could, but at last reached into my overcoat pocket.

From Literature

Mutti was running at him, clapping her hands and shouting at him, but the dog would not be put off, would not go away.

From Literature

Related Words

• adjourn
• postpone
• reschedule
• shelve
• suspend