tear-off

plural tear-offs · alternative tearoff

1. A strip or sheet of paper, plastic film, etc., that is designed to be removed by tearing or pulling off.

   My visor was covered in mud, and I had used up all the tear-offs.

2. computingA pull-down menu that can be detached from its parent menu bar and dragged around the screen.

   Tear-offs are rarely found in modern interfaces, though, so typically you'll want to disable the tear-off feature by default.

   2009, John K. Ousterhout, Ken Jones, Tcl and the Tk Toolkit

3. computingA COM (Component Object Model) interface that is instantiated only when explicitly requested.

   This makes tearoffs especially risky for objects that may be accessed remotely. Given all of the potential pitfalls of tearoffs, a logical question might be, "when are tearoffs appropriate?" There is no absolute answer; […]

   1998, Don Box, Essential COM, page 183

4. businessThe demolition phase of a reroofing job, wherein the old shingles or other materials are torn off in preparation for the installation of new ones.

   Holonyms: reroofing, roofing

1. not comparableDesigned to be removed by tearing or pulling off.

   a tear-off strip, a tear-off protector