phrasal verb · neutral
put off
UK/pʊt ɒf/US/pʊt ɔːf/PUT·off
to delay something or to discourage someone from doing something
Examples
“I decided to put off the meeting until next week.”
“His rude comment really put me off applying for the job.”
“She tends to put things off until the last minute.”
Band 8 sentence
“I usually try not to put tasks off because leaving them until the last minute increases my stress.”
Collocations
- put off a meeting
- put someone off
Word family
Common mistakes
I will put off to next week.→I will put it off until next week.
He put off the meeting yesterday (meaning: he postponed it earlier).→He postponed the meeting yesterday / He put the meeting off yesterday.
Say it for a higher band
5delay→6postpone→7+put off
Synonyms
postpone
delay
Easily confused
postpone
“They decided to postpone the conference until August.”
delay
“Flight delays were caused by bad weather.”
Related words
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In put …
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