Meanings
- pluralplural onlyentertainmentSound effects produced offstage.
A separate section is given to this subject because as a rule the importance of noises off is badly underestimated in the amateur theatre.
1934, Alfred Kenneth Boyd, The Technique of Play Production - broadlypluralplural onlySomething occurring on the margins or periphery of a given event, situation etc.
The political situation after the Year V elections developed into a war of position between rival factions, with muffled insurrectionary noises off supplied by bellicose neo-Jacobins and sabre-rattling royalists.
2002, Colin Jones, The Great Nation, Penguin, published 2003, page 5151 more example
Amazing, given the gravity of those, that noises-off to the main event continue to be bleatings by the likes of Jacob Rees-Mogg and Nadine Dorries […] who have now put five times more effort into greasing up to Boris Johnson than they ever did into public service.
2023 June 30, Marina Hyde, “The tide is coming in fast on Rishi Sunak – and it’s full of sewage”, in The Guardian
Cite this entry
noises off. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/noises%20off
“noises off.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/noises%20off. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “noises off,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/noises%20off.
Source: noises off on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.