Put off can mean to delay something until later, to make someone dislike something, or to distract someone who is concentrating. The meaning decides how you use it.
What Does "Put Off" Mean?
Here's the odd part: put off can describe delaying something (that's about time) and disliking something (that's about feelings). The common idea is pushing away. You push your homework away to later, or something pushes you away from a food.
Meaning #1: Delay Something
We had to put off the picnic because of the rain.
To put off something means to move it to a later time. The thing you delay comes after put off, or in the middle: put off the picnic or put the picnic off.
You can also use put off + -ing: I always put off cleaning my room.
Meaning #2: Make Someone Dislike Something
The smell of burnt toast put me off breakfast.
Here, something makes a person lose interest in something else. You can say put someone off (The long queue put us off) or put someone off something (It put me off soup).
In the passive, people say be put off by: Don't be put off by how it looks.
Meaning #3: Distract Someone
The loud sneeze put the goalkeeper off.
To put someone off can also mean to interrupt them while they're concentrating, so they find it harder to do what they're doing. It's common in sport and in the classroom.
🗣️ Natural Examples
We put the school trip off until Friday, and the ducks were furious.
I always put off tidying my room, and my room always notices.
The cold water put me off swimming before breakfast.
A buzzing fly put the quiz team off for a whole minute.
Don't put it off. Start your project today.
✂️ Can You Separate It?
Yes. Put off is separable: the object can go in the middle.
With a noun, both places are fine.
✅ Put off the party.
✅ Put the party off.
With it, him, her, them, the small word goes in the middle.
✅ Put it off.
❌ Put off it.
With me, you, us, put the person in the middle.
✅ The smell put me off.
❌ The smell put off me.
🛠️ How to Use It
- Delay: put off + thing, or put + thing + off. Put off the meeting.
- Delay + action: put off + -ing. Stop putting off doing your homework.
- Dislike: put + person + off (+ thing). It put me off spiders.
- Passive: be put off (by something). I was put off by the long queue.
⚠️ Common Mistakes
Where does "it" go? In the middle.
❌ I'll put off it until tomorrow.
✅ I'll put it off until tomorrow.
After put off, use -ing.
❌ I always put off to do my homework.
✅ I always put off doing my homework.
Put off or put up with? One is about delay, the other is about patience.
❌ I can't put off this noise any more.
✅ I can't put up with this noise any more.
💬 In a Conversation
Nina: Why haven't you started your science project?
Leo: I keep putting it off.
Nina: Why?
Leo: The rocket glue smell put me off.
Nina: So you put off the project because the project put you off?
Leo: Exactly. It is a very tidy excuse.
💡 The OddLingo Trick
Think of put off as put it away.
- Delay: you push the job away from today, to another day.
- Dislike: something pushes you away from the food, the sport or the idea.
- Distract: something pushes your attention away from what you were doing.
Different meanings, one picture: pushing away.
👯 Similar Expressions
- postpone and delay: close to meaning #1. They're a little more formal. The match was postponed.
- Put Up With: looks similar, but it means to accept something annoying. I can put up with the noise.
- Give Up: to stop trying. Don't give up.