sign-off
noun
the act or fact of signing off.
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sign-off
American
[sahyn-awf, -of]
/ ˈsaɪnˌɔf, -ˌɒf /
Or
signoff
noun
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the act or fact of signing off.
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personal approval or authorization; endorsement.
sign off
British
verb
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(intr) to announce the end of a radio or television programme, esp at the end of a day
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(intr) bridge to make a conventional bid indicating to one's partner that one wishes the bidding to stop
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(tr) to withdraw or retire from (an activity)
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(tr) (of a doctor) to declare (someone) unfit for work, because of illness
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(intr) to terminate one's claim to unemployment benefit
sign off
Idioms
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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]
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Stop talking, become silent, as in Every time the subject of marriage came up, Harold signed off . [ Colloquial ; mid-1900s]
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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.
When Osgood became a host on the TV side in the 1990s on “CBS News Sunday Morning,” his sign-off remained “I’ll see you on the radio.”
From Los Angeles Times • May 22, 2026
“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 have failed to go through.
From MarketWatch • Mar. 19, 2026
A similar sign-off process exists for other policy decisions at DHS.
From Salon • Mar. 5, 2026
Her sign-off was “Join me next week, because y’all know life can get messy.”
From "Hope Springs" by Jaime Berry
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.
