Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adv. Without preparation or forethought; extemporaneously.
- adj. Performed or expressed without preparation or forethought. See Synonyms at extemporaneous.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- At once; without deliberation or premeditation; without previous preparation or practice.
- From the hand; without the support of a rest.
- Without study or premeditation; impromptu: as, an offhand remark; an offhand speech.
- Free and easy; unstudied or unconventional: as, an offhand manner.
Wiktionary
- adj. without planning or thinking ahead
- adj. careless; without sufficient thought or consideration
- adj. curt, abrupt, unfriendly
- adv. right away, immediately, without thinking about it
- adv. in an offhand manner
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. forthwith; without delay, hesitation, or difficulty; promptly.
- prep. See Offhand.
- adj. Instant; unprepared; ready; extemporaneous; unrehearsed.
WordNet 3.0
- adv. without preparation
- adv. in a casually inconsiderate manner
- adj. with little or no preparation or forethought
- adj. casually thoughtless or inconsiderate
- adv. without previous thought or preparation
Etymologies
- From Middle English *ofhande, *ofhende, from Old English ofhende ("absent, lost"), equivalent to off- + hand. Cognate with Icelandic afhendur. Compare onhand. (Wiktionary)
Examples
“Can’t think of the title offhand, but it’s definitely on my list.”
“The only answer I can think of offhand is the bond market & those who have an interest in fixed incomes since inflation would be painful for both.”
Politics vs. Economics, II, Arnold Kling | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty
“The only answer I can think of offhand is the bond market”
Politics vs. Economics, II, Arnold Kling | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty
“The best example I can think of offhand is from Michael Marshall Smith's Only Forward.”
“I'm thinking shooting offhand is true love and a sandbag is a one night stand.”
“Shooting offhand is a humbling experience, it's much more fun to shoot tiny groups but it has little to do with hunting unless you're out west with your rifle laid on a bedroll.”
“While standing offhand is my best position I can't hit a thing with this particular gun beyond 40 yd because it is so light.”
“You wouldn't know his name offhand, but he wrote and executive-produced my favorite episode of my favorite TV show of all time.”
“Almost everyone had him on the wish-list I can't remember his name offhand as Pycelle too.”
“The only one I can think of offhand is "Charlotte's Web" ( "Now I'm the one who's caught in ...") by the Statler Brothers. posted by Roger Sutton at 10: 19 AM”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘offhand’.
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4087 more...
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Handy Words
List of words and phrases referring to the hand, hands, fist, or derivatives of the Latin manus, beginning with left-handed.
left-handed, double-fisted, fisticuffs, handy, right-handed, two-handed, manual, manumission, manuscript, manually, manustupration, manudiction and 164 more...
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GRE 2014
abase, abate, abdicate, aberrant, abeyance, abhor, abjure, abortive, abound, abrasive, abreast, abridge and 1577 more...
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words which are common but i am not f...
acquest, acquaint, acknowledge, urge, dodge, mitigation, basis, pledge, fulfill, fraction, infraction, deprive and 15 more...
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big book gre
abase, abbess, abbey, abbot, abdicate, abdomen, abdominal, abduction, abed, aberration, abet, abeyance and 6691 more...
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GCI
spinster, maiden, happy-go-lucky, homonym, ill-at-ease, saw red, out of sorts, hot under the collar, taken aback, pen-names, alias, shoelaces and 378 more...
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generationnext's Words
petulant, vehement, pensive, lascivious, vacillate, histrionic, satiated, svelte, lithe, zeitgeist, viscous, sommelier and 526 more...
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Just 'cause I like 'em, O
opacity, opaline, olfactory, orthoepy, orthoepy, oleaginous, obloquy, oasitic, obtrude, orthotic, overweening, ostinato and 125 more...
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The Sog Collection
My big word list.
chaos, flaccid, empirical, flotsam, cacophony, grumble, assuage, awe, romance, mortality, coalesce, fortuitous and 3282 more...
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colin's Words
carmine, puce, asinine, phrenetic, blight, edelweiss, supine, clusterfuck, meme, blobject, doppelganger, mesmerism and 105 more...
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kmalladi's favorites
edification, penchant, ablution, extricate, frank, triumvirate, trifecta, egregious, hoi polloi, articulate, antediluvian, brusque and 291 more...
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GRE
high frequent
industrious, feckless, debunk, quintessence, loquacious, obsequious, laconic, plethora, lugubrious, serendipity, facetious, turgid and 261 more...
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the catch-all
inveigle, frontier, invective, quizzical, merit, proficiency, eleemosynary, ham-handed, circumspect, epergne, cobble, industriousness and 201 more...
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robotboy's Words
heliotrope, ether, ethereal, soft, steel, pathos, static, mesmer, gambit, captious, overture, insipid and 117 more...
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oddball
wackadoodlery.
( personal list )
related (from me):
http://www.wordnik.com/lists/onomatopoeias--1
bric-a-brac, succotash, humbucker, skedaddle, scallywag, sassafras, gadzooks, humdinger, hoity-toity, wishy-washy, namby-pamby, ding dong and 441 more...
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The things they carried (List 2)
Listening to this as an audio book for the second time. Tim O'Brien uses simple words and phrases to great effect. Very few unfamilar and big words . The writing style reminds me of words from Joh...
The, Things, They, Carried, meant, fond, By necessity,, presented to him, far beyond, against the brick..., reaching, taut and 2940 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for offhand.
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