Dictionary

blow off course en · VERB

Etymology

In the Age of Sail, ships were occasionally diverted by unexpected winds, getting lost possibly to shipwreck or to a new destination. See blown off course on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Meanings

1. (figuratively, qualifier:often in the passive, transitive) To affect negatively, often in an unexpected manner; to derail.
   • In the background, Brexit uncertainty still looms. An extension to the transition period which ends this year would surely help the pound. For now Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government appears resistant to its core agenda getting blown off course. 2020 March 19, Marcus Ashworth, “Cheap Sterling Has Reasons to Be Cheaper”, in The Washington Post:
   • The environment secretary’s campaign was blown off course at the weekend after revelations about cocaine use. But on the day the Tory leadership contest launched in earnest, Gove insisted he was still “in it to win it”. 2019 June 10, Heather Stewart, “Gove reboots Tory leadership bid with attack on Johnson”, in The Guardian:
   • As a man proud to shape his own destiny, he found it shameful when events blew him off course. It didn't take tragedy or war to derail a man. It took only a memory. 2009, Ali Shaw, The Girl With Glass Feet, London: Atlantic Books, →ISBN, page 38:
   • He deserves every credit for establishing Labour as the party of economic competence, for reversing a generation of neglect in the public services and for achieving more than any previous Prime Minister in promoting Britain's place in Europe, until the hurricane over his support for the war on Iraq blew him off course. 2003, Robin Cook, “Prologue”, in The Point of Departure: Why One of Britain's Leading Politicians Resigned over Tony Blair's Decision to Go to War in Iraq, London: Simon & Schuster UK, →ISBN, page 1:

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