come off

See also: come-off

English

Verb

come off (third-person singular simple present comes off, present participle coming off, simple past came off, past participle come 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.

3. (dated) To have an orgasm.
   • 1928, D. H. Lawrence, Lady Chatterley's Lover:

     ‘Don't people often come off together?’ she asked with naive curiosity.

4. To appear; to seem; to project a certain quality.

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

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

5. To escape or get off (lightly, etc.); to come out of a situation without significant harm.
   • 1952, British Bee Journal & Bee-keepers Adviser (volume 80, page 466)

     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.

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

Derived terms

• come off it

Translations

become detached

• French: se détacher (fr), se décoller (fr)
• Russian: отвалиться (ru) pf (otvalitʹsja), отсоединиться (ru) pf (otsojedinitʹsja)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Tagalog: matanggal

to have some success

• Russian: удаваться (ru) (udavatʹsja), преуспеть (ru) pf (preuspetʹ)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}

Anagrams

• off-come, offcome