▪ I. put-off, n.
(pʊtˈɒf, -ɔː-)
Pl. put-offs.
[f. the verbal phrase put off (put v. 46).]
An act of putting off, in various senses.
1. An act of dismissing a question, argument, etc., or the person propounding it, by evasion or the like; a pretext for not doing something, or for deferring it till later (cf. 2); an evasion, a shift.
| 1549 Latimer 3rd Serm. bef. Edw. VI (Arb.) 79 Nowe they haue theyr shyftes, and theyr putofs sainge, we maye not go before a lawe, we maye breake no order. 1549 E. Becke Bible (Matthew's) Prol., Then should neyther Goddes cause nor poore mans matters haue so many putoffes, so many put byes & delayes. a 1704 T. Brown Dial. Dead, Friendship Wks. 1711 IV. 59 He..repay'd my past Services with..base Put-offs. 1823 Bentham Not Paul 42 Promises, put-offs, evasions— and, after all, no performance. 1886 Stevenson Kidnapped xxii, I think I would have asked farther, but Alan gave me the put-off. ‘I am rather wearied’, he said. |
2. An act of deferring or postponing something; postponement, delay, procrastination; a putting a person off to a later time.
| 1623 R. Carpenter Conscionable Christian 28 Instantly, as the occasion is giuen, without put-offs to aftertimes, or any tedious protraction. ? 1625 Jas. I in Waller's Poems (1711) p. ix, No Put-offs, my Lord, answer me presently. 1759 Franklin Ess. Wks. 1840 III. 425 What the governor's set-off could not effect, was to be reattempted by this put-off. 1827 Moore Mem. (1854) V. 157 Expecting..to receive a put-off from Lady Holland for the evening. |
3. lit. A putting off or setting down a person from a vehicle or a vessel, esp. a boat. rare.
| 1825 Hone Every-day Bk. I. 603 This delay..is occasioned by ‘laying to’ for ‘put offs’ of single persons and parties, in Thames wherries. |
▪ II. put-off, ppl. a.
see put ppl. a.