If you cast off something, you get rid of it because it is no longer necessary or useful to you, or because it is harmful to you.
[literary]
The essay exhorts women to cast off their servitude to husbands and priests. [VERBPARTICLE noun]
There was an extraordinary feeling of hope and relief, as if a great burden had beencast off. [VERBPARTICLE noun (not pronoun)]
[Also VERB noun PARTICLE]
2. See also cast-off
3. phrasal verb
If you are on a boat and you cast off, you untie the rope that is keeping the boat in a fixed position.
He cast off, heading out to the bay. [VERBPARTICLE]
See full dictionary entry for cast
cast-off
also castoff
Word forms: plural cast-offs
adjective [ADJECTIVE noun]
Cast-off things, especially clothes, are ones which someone no longer uses because they are old or unfashionable, and which they give to someone else or throw away.
Alexandra looked plump and awkward in her cast-off clothing.
Synonyms: discarded, unwanted, rejected, scrapped More Synonyms of cast-off
Cast-off is also a noun.
I never had anything new to wear as a child, only a cousin's cast-offs.
More Synonyms of cast-off
cast-off in British English
adjective
1. (prenominal)
thrown away; abandoned
cast-off shoes
nouncastoff
2.
a person or thing that has been discarded or abandoned
3. printing
an estimate of the amount of space that a piece of copy will occupy when printed in a particular size and style of type
verbcast off(adverb)
4.
to remove (mooring lines) that hold (a vessel) to a dock
5.
to knot (a row of stitches, esp the final row) in finishing off knitted or woven material
6. printing
to estimate the amount of space that will be taken up by (a book, piece of copy, etc) when it is printed in a particular size and style of type
7. (intransitive)
(in Scottish country dancing) to perform a progressive movement during which each partner of a couple dances separately behind one line of the set and then reunites with the other in their original position in the set or in a new position
cast off in American English
1.
to discard; abandon; disown
2.
to set free
3.
to release or disengage the line or lines holding a vessel in place beside a dock, quay, etc.
4. Knitting
to make the last row of stitches
5. Printing
to estimate how many lines or pages of type will be set from (a given amount of copy)
See full dictionary entry for cast
Examples of 'cast-off' in a sentence
cast-off
Wears the worst collection of cast-off clothing you've ever seen?
Jennifer Fallon TREASON KEEP (2001)
Everywhere, cast-off white ribbons from the sandals carpeted the ice.
Zindell, David THE BROKEN GOD (2001)
In other languages
cast off
British English: cast-off ADJECTIVE
Cast-off things, especially clothes, are ones which someone no longer uses because they are old or unfashionable, and which they give to someone else or throw away.
She looked plump and awkward in her cast-off clothing.
American English: cast-off
Brazilian Portuguese: defasado
Chinese: 丢弃的
European Spanish: deshechado
French: de seconde mainN
German: abgelegt
Italian: smesso
Japanese: お古の
Korean: 버려진
European Portuguese: rejeitado
Latin American Spanish: deshechado
Chinese translation of 'cast off'
cast off
vt
(liter, = get rid of) 抛(拋)弃(棄) (pāoqì)
vi
(Naut) 解船缆(纜) (jiě chuánlǎn)
(in knitting) 收针(針) (shōuzhēn)
See cast
(adjective)
Definition
discarded because no longer wanted or needed
There's no shame in wearing cast-off clothing.
Synonyms
discarded
unwanted
I was unhappy at home because I felt unwanted and unloved.
rejected
scrapped
useless
surplus to requirements
unneeded
(noun)
Definition
a person or thing that has been discarded because no longer wanted or needed
I dress mainly in my brother's cast-offs.
Synonyms
discard
second
reject
a hat that looks like a reject from an army patrol
Additional synonyms
in the sense of reject
Definition
a person or thing rejected as not up to standard
a hat that looks like a reject from an army patrol
Synonyms
castoff,
second,
discard,
flotsam,
clunker (informal)
in the sense of unwanted
Definition
not wanted or welcome
I was unhappy at home because I felt unwanted and unloved.