Offhand \Off"hand`\, a.
Instant; unprepared; ready; extemporaneous; unrehearsed; as,
an offhand speech; offhand excuses; an offhand comment. --
adv. In an offhand manner; as, he replied offhand.
[1913 Webster]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
offhand
adj 1: with little or no preparation or forethought; "his ad-lib
comments showed poor judgment"; "an extemporaneous
piano recital"; "an extemporary lecture"; "an
extempore skit"; "an impromptu speech"; "offhand
excuses"; "trying to sound offhanded and reassuring";
"an off-the-cuff toast"; "a few unrehearsed comments"
[syn: ad-lib, extemporaneous, extemporary, extempore,
impromptu, offhanded, off-the-cuff, unrehearsed]
2: casually thoughtless or inconsiderate; "an offhand manner";
"she treated most men with offhand contempt" [syn: offhanded]
adv 1: without previous thought or preparation; "couldn't give the
figures offhand"; "we decided offhand to go to
Canada"; "she had made these remarks offhandedly"
[syn: offhanded, offhandedly]
2: in a casually inconsiderate manner; "replied offhand, his
mind a million miles away"; "she threw him over
offhandedly without even a Dear-John letter" [syn: offhanded,
offhandedly]
WordNet (r) 2.0
off-hand
adv : without preparation; "I don't know the figures off-hand"
[syn: ex tempore]
WordNet (r) 2.0
161 Moby Thesaurus words for "offhand":
Bohemian, abrupt, ad lib, ad libitum, ad-lib, affable, airily,
airy, aloof, any old way, any which way, anyhow, at short notice,
at sight, blase, brusque, bunglingly, by ear, by the by,
by the way, careless, carelessly, casual, casually, cavalier,
clumsily, cool, cordial, cursorily, cursory, curt, degage,
devil-may-care, disregardant, disregardful, disregardfully,
distant, easy, easygoing, en famille, en passant, extemporaneous,
extemporaneously, extemporarily, extemporary, extempore, familiar,
familiarly, flippant, folksy, forgetful, forgetfully,
free and easy, glib, gracious, haphazardly, haymish, heedless,
heedlessly, helter-skelter, hit and miss, hit or miss, homely,
homey, impromptu, improvisatorial, improvise, improvised,
improviso, in passing, inattentively, incidentally, inconsiderate,
inconsiderately, indifferent, informal, informally, insouciant,
irregular, jury-rigged, lackadaisical, lazy, light-hearted, loose,
makeshift, messily, natural, naturally, nonchalant, oblivious,
off the cuff, off the hip, off-the-cuff, offhanded, offhandedly,
on sight, once over lightly, out of hand, parenthetically,
perfunctorily, perfunctory, plain, plainly, promiscuously,
reckless, recklessly, regardless, regardlessly, relaxed, relaxedly,
respectless, sans ceremonie, simple, simply, slapdash, sloppily,
smooth, sociable, spur-of-the-moment, stopgap, superficial,
superficially, tactless, tactlessly, thoughtless, thoughtlessly,
unaffected, unaffectedly, unassuming, unassumingly, unceremonious,
unceremoniously, unconcerned, unconstrained, unconstrainedly,
unconventional, undiplomatic, ungracious, unguardedly, unheedful,
unheedfully, unheeding, unheedingly, uninterested, unmindful,
unmindfully, unofficial, unofficially, unpremeditated, unprepared,
unready, unrehearsed, unsolicitous, unsolicitously, unstudied,
untactful, unthinking, unthinkingly, unvigilantly, unwarily,
without ceremony
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0
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