Castoff (noun) Definition, Meaning & Examples

adjective
  1. thrown away; rejected; discarded: Out of a few pieces of castoff clothing she made herself a presentable new outfit.
noun
  1. a person or thing that has been thrown away or rejected: I refuse to accept second hand merchandise—some other person's castoffs.Many immigrants felt like castoffs, marginalized by national and global economic forces.
  2. the estimate by a compositor of how many pages copy will occupy when set in type.
verb phrase cast off [kast-awf, of] /ˈkæst ˈɔf, ˈɒf/
  1. to reject or discard: He soon cast off the shackles of his repressive upbringing.
  2. to let go or let loose, as a vessel or its ropes from a mooring; set sail or begin a voyage: We were about to cast off on a three-day cruise along the coast of British Columbia.
  3. to make (the final stitches) in a piece of knitting and remove them from the needle.
  4. to determine how much space or type will be occupied by (a given amount of text).
  5. to shed or cast: Like leaves on an oak tree, antlers are cast off and then regrown every year.
  6. to throw (a falcon) off from the fist to pursue game.
adjective
  1. thrown away; abandoned
noun castoff
  1. a person or thing that has been discarded or abandoned
  2. an estimate of the amount of space that a piece of copy will occupy when printed in a particular size and style of type
verb cast off (adverb)
  1. to remove (mooring lines) that hold (a vessel) to a dock
  2. to knot (a row of stitches, esp the final row) in finishing off knitted or woven material
  3. to estimate the amount of space that will be taken up by (a book, piece of copy, etc) when it is printed in a particular size and style of type
  4. (in Scottish country dancing) to perform a progressive movement during which each partner of a couple dances separately behind one line of the set and then reunites with the other in their original position in the set or in a new position
Castoff (noun) Definition, Meaning & Examples

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