come off

present singular third person comes off · participle present coming off · past came off

1. To become detached.

   One of the wagon wheels came off.

2. To have some success; to succeed.

   He tried his Chaplin impression, but it didn't really come off.

   1 more example

   […] 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

3. datedintransitiveTo 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.

   You should be careful about how you come off during interviews.

   2 more examples

   I'm sorry if I came off as condescending; that wasn't my intention.

   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

   Synonyms: come across

5. To escape or get off (lightly, etc.); to come out of a situation without significant harm.

   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

   1 more example

   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

6. To occur; to take place; to turn out; to end up.

   It came off as we expected.

   3 more examples

   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

   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

   ‘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

7. obsolete?To come away (from a place); to leave.

   The 290 bus route comes off the A316 at Hanworth.

   1 more example

   […] 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. obsoletemediaTo finish being printed.

   This one came off easily.

9. transitiveTo quit (a drug or habit); to stop doing (something).
10. intransitiveTo stop playing (music).

    I had to say, ‘Come off after the second beat, don’t hang on!’ (as per Mahler’s instructions).

    2018 October 28, October 2018 rehearsal and practice wiki archive (blog), archived from the original on 12 Aug 2024