Dictionary

par off en · VERB

Meanings

1. (UK, slang) To reject, ignore, or spurn.
   • When good boy Grant suddenly drops good girl Cassidy for Tayla, and everybody feels sorry for Cassidy, before she does the exact same thing to lovable puppy dog Josh by parring him off for newcomer Mich. 2018 June 22, Georgie Wright, “We Compared the British and Australian 'Love Island'”, in VICE:
   • What they were like on Love Island: Cringe, and when he told her he loved her the day before the final and she parred him off, it was clear it wasn't going to work. 2017 December 4, Diyora Shadijanova, “Kem and Amber might be over, but which Love Island couples are still together?”, in The Tab:
   • Christopher suggested being "open" with the person you are parring off which will provide a "good grounding" for future tricky situations you want to weasel out of. 2017 February 20, Lucy Woodham, “We asked a therapist how to stop overthinking things”, in The Tab:
   • "Nice to see eclectic sets being celebrated as they should ... except the part where the most brilliantly eclectic DJs are constantly being parred off by promoters," tweeted Josey Rebelle late last year. 2018 March 15, Josey Rebelle (quoted), Patrick Hinton, “Stop calling DJs 'eclectic'”, in Mixmag:
2. (UK, slang) To put or give away.
   • That’s why, on Tuesday, I was uncharacteristically excited to see that I had an acai bowl – actual food! – but, sadly, it wasn’t to my taste, and neither was Wednesday’s Spinach, Apple and Matcha smoothie, which I happily parred off to my boyfriend in favour of, you guessed it, a chicken caesar wrap from the shop. 2022 August 20, Ella Glover, “Is this vegan food subscription worth your time and money? I tried it for a week”, in Metro:
   • When you broadly look at what’s going on in the Pokemon universe, it’s pretty questionable. Masses of beautiful wild creatures roam the hills, and it’s your task to encase them all in balls for use in battles or to par them off in a safe deposit box for your creepy collection. 2016 February 26, Adam Starkey, “8 important life lessons we’ve learned from 20 years of Pokemon”, in Metro:
3. (UK, slang) To insult.
   • I said to the guy, "Listen, I want a vindaloo, but I want it hot, OK? Don't par me off with any of this little spice thing." He said, "OK, yeah, you want it hot?" So, I said, "Yeah," so he went away and ordered it and he came back and clunked it in front of me and I started to eat it and it was unbelievably hot. 2016 March 14, Phil Collins (quoted), Scott Lapatine, “Easy Lover Easy Rider: Action Bronson Interviews Phil Collins”, in Stereogum:
4. To handle; to deal with.
   • I think rather than to be specific about an individual or individuals, you really have to par it off for yourself as kind of a generic classification, and decide what you're going to do about those people. 2015, The Nixon Tapes, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, →ISBN, page 637:

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