Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Happening, done, or made only once.
- n. Something that is not repeated or reproduced.
Wiktionary
- adj. Occurring once; one-time.
- n. idiomatic Something that is done, created, etc. only once, and often quickly, simply, or improvisationally.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a happening that occurs only once and is not repeated
Etymologies
- Probably from foundry work, for which making reusable molds is expensive and expediency the rule for molds not to be reused. (Wiktionary)
Examples
“Fiscal discipline is theoretically a laudable goal, though in this case the agreement won't prevent governments from embarking on Keynesian spending sprees as "one-off and temporary measures"—the definition of "one-off" presumably being in the eye of the beholder.”
“These so-called one-off expenses are not as uncommon as people think.”
“The damning report said the violence could not be described as a "one-off" because of evidence that 1QLR troops abused and mistreated Iraqi civilians on other occasions.”
“Each of the Park Avenue Armory performances is an Event - that is, a one-off Cunningham anthology.”
“Is it the sort of thing that only works as a one-off now and then on the basis of generosity more than anything else?”
“If you followed them back far enough, you might actually get to little tidbits and one-off quotes from “conservatives” that looked like they were dredged up out of context by Media Matters.”
“Grief counseling can be a long-term process, a short-term affair or even a one-off, trumny and can occur on a one-to-one basis or in groupstrumny (Quote)”
“In China, Xia Bom, an adviser to the People's Bank of China, China's central bank, did not rule out this week a one-off revaluation upward of the Chinese currency.”
The Huffington Post: Robert Lenzner: A Tipping Point for the Dollar and the Yuan
“But because each Worldcon is a one-off event, fiscal prudence always wins over new ideas.”
“Except that was a one-off joke instead of the resolution of the entire series.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘one-off’.
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my dictionary
able, abnormally, abroad, absent, abstract, acceptable, acceptance, access, accessible, accession, according to, account and 4551 more...
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2012-08-01
new words
mugging, line up, spare change, tampon, persuasive, one-off, harass, parting, stretch, tactic, unease, potential and 5 more...
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Britishisms
Tweets
Looking for tweets for one-off.
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