well off, adv. and a.
[See off adv. 11 and quot. 1636 in well adv. 6 b.]
1. In predicate, normally without hyphen: a. Favourably circumstanced, fortunately situated; b. well provided, having no lack (const. for, † in); esp. c. in easy circumstances, well-to-do.
| a. 1733 Trav. J. Massey 18, I was well off if he only call'd me a Libertine. 1762 [see off adv. 11]. 1796 T. Morton Way to get Married i. (1800) 5 Why don't you go to the other inn? I'll tell you—cause you know when you are well off, ha, ha! a 1865 Mrs. Gaskell Wives & Dau. i, She was a silly little thing, and did not know when she was well off. |
| b. 1800 Coleridge Let. to Poole in J. D. Campbell Life (1894) 115 In gardens, etc., we are uncommonly well-off. 1879 Meredith Egoist viii, We are well-off for wild-flowers here. |
| c. 1849 Lever Con Cregan vi, I began to conceive a great grudge against all who were well off in life. 1854 Surtees Handley Cr. ii. (1901) I. 16 He was pretty well off, that is to say, he had more than he spent. 1866 Trollope Claverings iv, If he dies, she will be well off, of course. 1889 ‘J. S. Winter’ Mrs. Bob i, He was rich (or at least certainly well off). |
2. attrib. or adj. (with hyphen). In sense 1 c. Also
absol.| 1884, 1888 [see off adv. 11]. 1893 Furnivall Child-Marriages Pref. 49 A well-off widow. 1899 Allbutt's Syst. Med. VIII. 301 The poor and hard-working are subject to mental upset during nursing in much larger numbers than the well-off. 1908 Sociolog. Rev. Apr. 131 The long-continued refusal of the well-off classes to enter public hospitals. |
Hence
well-ˈoffness.
nonce-wd.| 1866 Mrs. Oliphant Madonna Mary vi, Hesketh's well-off-ness..was trying to a man. 1915 H. James Sense of Past (1917) 289 His being in 1820 as ‘rich’ as he is, or was, in 1910—which counts for an immense well-offness at the earlier period. |