brush-offとは 意味・読み方・使い方

語源

Deverbal from brush off.

名詞

brush-off (plural brush-offs)

1. An abrupt rebuff, a snub or curt rejection, a disdainful dismissal.

   A halfhearted “thank you” may be a brush-off.

   For the first time, we in the SF ghetto are beginning to get criticism – not brush-offs from literary snobs.

   • 2026 July 29, Nicholas Muhoro, “Amy Billig Vanished While Hitchhiking Through Coconut Grove. Then the Calls Began”, in Skip Boring‎, archived from the original on 31 July 2026:

     Susan called the police after they failed to locate Amy that afternoon. The response was a brush-off dressed as reassurance. Detective Michael Gonzalez told her, “Don’t panic. Call back if Amy isn’t home by morning.”

派生語

• give someone the brush-off

動詞

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.

   Synonym: shrug off

   • 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.

派生語

名詞

brush off (plural brush offs)

1. Nonstandard spelling of brush-off.