off of
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English
Pronunciation
Preposition
- (now colloquial) Off; from. [from 15th c.]
- 1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies. […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i]:
- Card. What, art thou lame?
Simpc. I, God Almightie helpe me.
Suff. How cam'st thou so?
Simpc. A fall off of a Tree.
- 1741, [Samuel Richardson], Pamela: Or, Virtue Rewarded. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to IV), London: […] C[harles] Rivington, […]; and J. Osborn, […], →OCLC:
- Do, my dearest child, get me off of this difficulty, and I can have no other […] .
- 1870–1871 (date written), Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], chapter XX, in Roughing It, Hartford, Conn.: American Publishing Company [et al.], published 1872, →OCLC, page 151:
- The coach bounced up and down in such a terrific way that it jolted the buttons all off of Horace’s coat, […]
- 1928 September 28, “Eye of Gawd”, in Time:
- "The green curtains that hung there for years and years... have been taken down and the blood-red cardinal velvet curtains have been hung up, and they have taken the green top off of the President's desk and put a red one on that..."
- 1967, Bob Crewe / Bob Gaudio, Can't Take My Eyes Off You:
- You're just too good to be true / I Can't take my eyes off of you.
- 1995, Alan Warner, Morvern Callar, Vintage, published 2015, page 13:
- Though it was only bass and drums I could hear, you could tell it was that (Don't Fear) The Reaper, offof Some Enchanted Evening.
Usage notes
- The use of off of as a preposition is now considered tautological or incorrect by some usage guides and is not suitable for formal or business use. Off of can be replaced with on, from or off: "This is based on (off of) his first book"; "I got the information from (off of) the Internet"; "He took a paper off (off of) his desk".