offhand
Meanings
Adjective Satellite
- with little or no preparation or forethought
- "offhand excuses"
- "trying to sound offhanded and reassuring"
- casually thoughtless or inconsiderate
- "an offhand manner"
- "she treated most men with offhand contempt"
Adverb
- without previous thought or preparation
- "couldn't give the figures offhand"
- "we decided offhand to go to Canada"
- "she had made these remarks offhandedly"
- in a casually inconsiderate manner
- "replied offhand, his mind a million miles away"
- "she threw him over offhandedly without even a Dear-John letter"
Adj
- Without planning or thinking ahead.
- Careless; without sufficient thought or consideration.
- Curt, abrupt, unfriendly.
Adv
- Right away, immediately, without thinking about it.
- In an abrupt or unfriendly manner.
Origin / Etymology
From Middle English *ofhande, *ofhende, from Old English ofhende (“absent, lost”), ultimately from Proto-Germanic *abahandijaz. Equivalent to (and re-formed as) off- + hand. Cognate with Icelandic afhendur. Compare onhand.
Synonyms
ad-lib, extemporaneous, extemporary, extempore, impromptu, off-the-cuff, offhanded, offhandedly, out of hand, unrehearsed
Scrabble Score: 17
offhand is a valid Scrabble (US) TWL wordoffhand is a valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
offhand is a valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary