Dictionary

come off en · VERB

Pronunciation

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Meanings

1. To become detached.
   • One of the wagon wheels came off.
2. To have some success; to succeed.
   • […] the kind of second-drawer poems which do not quite come off in terms of total response but which poets are often reluctant to abandon because they are technically competent and a good deal of work has gone into them. 1978, Canadian Literature, numbers 78-79, page 84:
   • He tried his Chaplin impression, but it didn't really come off.
3. (dated, intransitive) To have an orgasm.
   • She turned and looked at him. ‘We came off together that time,’ he said. […] ‘Don't people often come off together?’ she asked with naive curiosity. 1928, D[avid] H[erbert] Lawrence, Lady Chatterley’s Lover, Gutenberg edition, [Florence, Italy]: [ […] Tipografia Giuntina, […]], →OCLC; republished as Lady Chatterley’s Lover (eBook no. 0100181h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg Australia, August 2011, archived from the original on 11 Nov 2020:
4. To appear; to seem; to project a certain quality.
   • The task is complicated by the people with whom he must cope, including Rose, the martinet chair of the English Department; Connie, a frustrated, mercurial, and ultimately vindictive colleague (women do not come off well in this book); […] 1985 August 24, Bill Kreidler, “Uneven Men's Comedy from Promising Writer”, in Gay Community News, volume 13, number 7, page 9:
   • You should be careful about how you come off during interviews.
   • I'm sorry if I came off as condescending; that wasn't my intention.
5. To escape or get off (lightly, etc.); to come out of a situation without significant harm.
   • It strikes me that you have come off uncommonly easy, seeing as how things were. No mess, no breakages, no odds and ends from every room that you can't remember until it's too late to claim. Just one big lot taken clean. 1927, Ernest Bramah [pseudonym; Ernest Brammah Smith], Max Carrados Mysteries:
   • Well that is precisely what I did, and as I had never heard of using gloves and veil in connection with bees I suppose I came off lightly with one sting on the tip of the nose. 1952, British Bee Journal & Bee-keepers Adviser, volume 80, page 466:
6. To occur; to take place; to turn out; to end up.
   • ‘I was never frightened of any job yet,’ he said, ‘and I'd do this job to-night if the house was full of rozzers,’ Hill pretended that he wasn't particular whether the thing came off or not that night, but all the while he kept egging Fred on to do it. 1916, Arthur J. Rees, John R. Watson, The Hampstead Mystery:
   • It came off as we expected.
   • And then the wedding came off, and the king gave a grand feast which lasted for many a day, and if they have not done feasting by this, why they are still at it. 1886, Peter Christen Asbjø￵rnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 61:
   • The concluding ceremony came off at twelve o’clock on the day of departure […] 1870 April–September, Charles Dickens, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1870, →OCLC:
7. (qualifier:obsolete?) To come away (from a place); to leave.
   • The 290 bus route comes off the A316 at Hanworth.
   • […] Arnton Fell comes into sight across the Riccarton Burn and—more important—so does the Carlisle train, with an impatient-looking Pacific, Sir Visto, and several heads out of windows inquiring what the delay is and marvelling at the spectacle of an eight-coach train, garlanded at the front and quite full of passengers, coming off the single line. 1956 December, Michael Robbins, “End of the Border Counties Line”, in Railway Magazine, page 810:
8. (obsolete, of a printed sheet) To finish being printed.
   • This one came off easily.
9. (transitive) To quit (a drug or habit); to stop doing (something).
10. (intransitive) To stop playing (music).
    • I had to say, ‘Come off after the second beat, don’t hang on!’ (as per Mahler’s instructions). 2018 October 14, October 2018 rehearsal and practice wiki archive (blog), archived from the original on 12 Aug 2024:

Forms

Deriveds

come off second best · come-off · come off it

Synonyms

come across

Translations (28)

de sich ablösen (become detached) · de sich loslösen (become detached) · es quedar (to appear; to seem; to project a certain quality) · es aparentar (to appear; to seem; to project a certain quality) · es expresarse (to appear; to seem; to project a certain quality) · fr se détacher (become detached) · az qopmaq (become detached) · sv åka av (become detached) · az ayrılıb düşmək (become detached) · tl matanggal (become detached) · es dar una impresión (to appear; to seem; to project a certain quality) · ta கழல் (become detached) · ota قالقمق (become detached) · ru отвалиться (become detached) · cs vyjít (to have some success) · ru удаваться (to have some success) · de gelingen (to have some success) · de sich lösen (become detached) · cs povést se (to have some success) · ta அவிழ் (become detached) · fr se décoller (become detached) · es dar la impresión de (to appear; to seem; to project a certain quality) · es parecer (to appear; to seem; to project a certain quality) · de abfallen (become detached) · es salirle (to appear; to seem; to project a certain quality) · ru отсоединиться (become detached) · sv lossna (become detached) · ru преуспеть (to have some success)