brush off

See also: brushoff and brush-off

English

Pronunciation

• Audio (General Australian):

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Verb

brush off (third-person singular simple present brushes off, present participle brushing off, simple past and past participle brushed off)

1. (idiomatic) To disregard (something), to dismiss or ignore (someone), as unimportant.
   • 1960, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, chapter XVIII, in Jeeves in the Offing, London: Herbert Jenkins, →OCLC:

     Again I begged her to keep an eye on her blood pressure and not get so worked up, and once more she brushed me off, this time with a curt request that I would go and boil my head.

2. (dated) To depart with a sweeping motion; to rush away.
   • 1765, [Oliver] Goldsmith, The Haunch of Venison, a Poetical Epistle to Lord Clare, Dublin: […] W. Whitestone, […], published 1776, →OCLC, page 8:

     Thus, ſeizing his hat, he bruſh’d off like the wind, / And the Porter and Eatables follow’d behind.

3. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see brush,‎ off. To remove something with a brush.

Derived terms

• brush-off (noun)
• brushoff (noun)

 

Translations

to remove with a brush

• Russian: смести́ (ru) impf (smestí), смета́ть (ru) pf (smetátʹ)

to disregard

• Czech: zkvaknout
• French: ignorer (fr), regarder de haut (fr)
• German: abbügeln (de)
• Russian: отмести́ (ru) impf (otmestí), отмета́ть (ru) pf (otmetátʹ)
• Spanish: ignorar (es)

Noun

brush off (plural brush offs)

1. Nonstandard spelling of brush-off.