off and on, advb. phr. (a., n.)
(See also on and off.)
[off adv. 4, 1 c, 12.]
1. With interruption and resumption of action; intermittently, at intervals, now and again.
‘Of an on’, Torr. Portugal 543, is app. a corrupt reading.
| 1535 Coverdale 1 Chron. xxviii. 1 Officers waytinge vpon the kynge, to go of & on after their course. 1681 Nevile Plato Rediv. 107 A bloody War ensued, for almost forty years, off and on. 1779 Greene in Sparks Corr. Amer. Rev. (1853) II. 272 They had been hammering upon the business for almost two months, off and on. 1860 Mrs. Carlyle Lett. III. 41, I..slept off and on..all the way to Crewe. |
2. Naut. On alternate tacks, away from and towards the shore.
| a 1608 Sir F. Vere Comm. 29, I plied onely to windward, lying off and on from the mouth of the Bay to the sea. 1666 Lond. Gaz. No. 113/3 Their Convoyer in his return, standing off and on for high water. 1722 De Foe Col. Jack (1840) 192 Some..privateers lay off and on in the soundings. 1852 Th. Ross Humboldt's Trav. I. iii. 146 The Captain preferred standing off and on till daybreak. 1894 Crockett Raiders (ed. 3) 66 She's been beating off and on a' day with her tops'ls reefed. |
b. Used prepositionally.
| 1708 Lond. Gaz. No. 4420/6 We lay off and on Buccaness all Day Yesterday. 1769 Falconer Dict. Marine (1789) s.v. Off, When a ship is beating to windward, so that by one board she approaches towards the shore, and by the other sails out to sea-ward, she is said to stand off and on shore, alternately. |
3. In vacillation between connexion and the reverse; with a see-saw policy.
| a 1641 Bp. R. Montagu Acts & Mon. (1642) 467 In this sort stood the Samaritans wavering off and on with the Jewes a long time. |
4. lit. to play off and on with, to take off and put on alternately.
| 1845 Tait's Mag. XII. 4 Sarah..in deep confusion, played off and on with one of the richly jewelled rings she wore. |
B. predicatively or as adj. Sometimes off and sometimes on; intermittent, taking place at intervals; vacillating, inconstant; dial. (of a sick person) sometimes better and sometimes worse.
| 1583 Golding Calvin on Deut. xv. 88 Their hoping is but off and on at al-aduenture. 1640 Sanderson Serm. (1681) II. 144 We are wavering and loose, off and on, and no hold to be taken of us. 1688 R. Holme Armoury ii. 305/2 The Proverb, Off and on, like a Cock Sparrow. 1805 Wordsw. Prelude iv. 187 The faithful dog, The off and on companion of my walk. 1866 Mrs. Carlyle Lett. III. 316 After about two hours of off-and-on sleep, I awoke. |
C. as n. (by ellipsis of a vbl. n.) Intermittent or inconstant action, see-sawing, vacillation.
| 1875 W. Cory Lett. & Jrnls. (1897) 386 After many years of off and on, he has taken to calling me his ‘dear old friend’. |