Throw-off
noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 A start in a hunt or a race. UK
"We had not covered much more than three miles since the throw-off; but horses and hounds already exhibited a most interesting and picturesque tail."
- 2 A race in which a contestant is paid to deliberately lose.
"Since the spring of 1863 there has never been a throw-off race, nor shall there ever be a race on the track for hippodroming; all must be on the square, as the club started it for their own fun and to work their horses on."
- 3 A control that engages or disengages part of the mechanism on a device without having to turn the device off.
"I have seen a corporation erect a $60,000 building, including $500 expende in decorating the business office, and still do its job printing on ancient Degeners, unprovided with throw-offs or ink fountains, while the business manager was perplexed to see his competitors, provided with modern machinery, take long runs of presswork at prices he could not touch except at a considerable loss."
- 4 A throw taken to resume play, such as after a goal or at the start of a period.
"When a player of the side having the throw-off at the center, crosses the halfway line ahead of the ball, he is "off-side" and the ball shall be called back for a second throw from a new line five yards back of the halfway line."
- 5 Income minus expenses and depreciation (before tax).
"In the case of the single investment, both the tax payments and the quasi-rent throw-off would be only for the single investment being evaluated."
Show 8 more definitions
- 6 A discount on a debt or invoice due to a problem with the asset being paid for. broadly
"Then there is, I think, $25,000 extra allowed in the appropriation to pay for extra service at the rate of 4 cents per mile, where the amount of service is very great and the number of throw-offs very great."
- 7 The act of flinging or throwing something off.
"Too much belt dressing gradually builds up lumps on belt and pulley surfaces, causes belt throw-offs, and may break belt lacing."
- 8 Something that is flung or thrown off.
"This oil throwing condition had two principle aspects: first, the oil was subjected to considerable windage by the action of the crankshaft; secondly, since it is necessary to circulate a large amount of oil through the engine due to large bearing clearances required for lubrication and cooling, this results in more throw-off."
- 9 The deflection of a projectile at an angle.
"You have to judge the angle of the throw-off and the impact point."
- 10 Something that has been discarded; a castoff.
"I say the younger Senators who got the throw-offs of everybody else."
- 11 A red herring; something intended to throw people off.
"To protect against sign stealing, I employ a lot of what we call 'throw-offs', gestures after I have already given the sign which mean nothing but may fool the foe into thinking that one of them is a sign."
- 12 Something that is done, made, or said informally, on the side, or off-the-cuff.
"Slight plays like Die Geschwister, or the brief comedies like Der Bürgergeneral, although based on potentially important Goethean themes, remain mere sketches from an artist's notebook; whilst the musical pieces and entertainments, brillian and charming, no doubt, are clever throw-offs of an enormously fertile poetic fancy."
- 13 A byproduct, spinoff, or incidental creation.
"In terms of the way this question is worded, in responding to it I would have to say that nothing but the most liberal approach should be followed in order to advance this industry and its throw-offs to the United States and world economies."
Example
More examples"We had not covered much more than three miles since the throw-off; but horses and hounds already exhibited a most interesting and picturesque tail."
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.