on and off, advb. phr. (n.)
a. = off and on, q.v.; also in more general sense (see on adv. and off adv.).
| 1855 Browning Bp. Blougram's Apol. 789 It shoots..Halfway into the next still, on and off! 1881 E. D. Brickwood in Encycl. Brit. (ed. 9) XII. 197/2 Hedges on banks..are usually of such a size as to make flying them impossible, or at least undesirable. Horses jump them on and off. 1889 Repent. P. Wentworth II. 227 [He] has been working with us at Crum Street a good deal, on and off. 1889 Dict. Nat. Biog. XVIII. 125/2 A siege which lasted on and off for twenty years. 1892 Times (weekly ed.) 21 Oct. 7/3 [He] had lived with her on and off since that time. |
b. attrib. Now usu. with hyphens. c. as n. A putting on and taking off; intermittent action; in quot. 1852, a leap on and off a fence, a fence to be so jumped.
| 1852 R. S. Surtees Sponge's Sp. Tour (1893) 17 They then made for a large field at the back of the house, with leaping-bars, hurdles, ‘on and offs’, ‘ins and outs’, all sorts of fancy leaps scattered about. 1854 R. E. Egerton-Warburton Hunt. Songs (1883) No. 33 xii, Which method best insures us from a fall. The Chester on-and-off step, or the Leicester clearing all? 1895 M. M. Dowie Gallia 119, I love to feel the on and off of the break and to watch the way the pole seems to feel its way through the traffic. 1904 Westm. Gaz. 13 Jan. 2/3 The buyer resented this on-and-off policy. 1936 Discovery July 222/1 His left hand works an ‘on-and-off’ key, sounding the note when it is pressed and killing it when released. 1965 T. Capote In Cold Blood (1966) i. 4 She had been an on-and-off psychiatric patient the last half-dozen years. 1974 Country Life 21 Feb. 394/3 Grazed..on a rotational or ‘on and off’ system. 1977 Time 19 Sept. 30/1 The signing of a Panama Canal treaty that was initialed last month after 13 years of on-and-off efforts through the Administrations of four U.S. Presidents. |
Hence on-and-off v., (a) intr. to sail on alternate tacks on and off the shore (see off and on 2); (b) trans. to leap on and then off; on-and-offish a., inclined to be on and off, somewhat fluctuating (in mood, temper, or health: cf. off and on B.).
| 1823 Byron Juan xii. lxiii, Who..keeps you on and off-ing On a lee-shore. 1852 R. S. Surtees Sponge's Sp. Tour (1893) 345 ‘I'll have a word with you’, said Sponge, on-and-offing the hedge. 1888 E. J. Goodman Too Curious xiii, As well as she ever is. Rather on-and-offish. |