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  • sign-off
    sign-off
    noun
    the act or fact of signing off.
  • sign off
    sign off
    verb
    (intr) to announce the end of a radio or television programme, esp at the end of a day
Synonyms

sign-off

American  
[sahyn-awf, -of] / ˈsaɪnˌɔf, -ˌɒf /
Or signoff

noun

  1. the act or fact of signing off.

  2. personal approval or authorization; endorsement.

sign off British  

verb

  1. (intr) to announce the end of a radio or television programme, esp at the end of a day

  2. (intr) bridge to make a conventional bid indicating to one's partner that one wishes the bidding to stop

  3. (tr) to withdraw or retire from (an activity)

  4. (tr) (of a doctor) to declare (someone) unfit for work, because of illness

  5. (intr) to terminate one's claim to unemployment benefit

"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
sign off Idioms  

  1. Announce the end of a communication, especially a broadcast. For example, There's no one there now; the station has signed off for the night . [c. 1920]

  2. Stop talking, become silent, as in Every time the subject of marriage came up, Harold signed off . [ Colloquial ; mid-1900s]

  3. Express approval formally or conclusively, as in The President got the majority leader to sign off on the tax proposal . This usage is colloquial.

Etymology

Origin of sign-off

First recorded in 1925–30; noun use of verb phrase sign off

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

“A Portrait of the Artist” bears two sign-off dates: “Dublin, 1904 / Trieste, 1914.”

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 24, 2026

Regardless, without the administration’s sign-off, the Nexstar-Tegna deal would undoubtedly fail to go through.

From MarketWatch • Mar. 19, 2026

MedExpress told the BBC that as a result of the ASA ban, it had "strengthened our internal sign-off processes, introduced additional sensitivity checks, and enhanced advertising governance across all conditions and categories we serve."

From BBC • Dec. 16, 2025

Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill last year that would have extended the decal program until 2027, but the bill needed a sign-off from both Congress and President Trump.

From Los Angeles Times • Oct. 1, 2025

She used Immie’s favorite words, her slang, her sign-off, her “kind ofs” and “maybes.”

From "Genuine Fraud" by E. Lockhart

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.