offcast

That which is rejected as useless.

Noun

  1. That which is rejected as useless.

Origin

From Middle English ofcasten, equivalent to off- + cast. Cognate with Danish afkaste (“to shed”), Swedish avkasta (“to crop, throw off, yield”). The noun is possibly derived from Middle English ofcast (“the refuse of plants”).

Forms

offcasts off-cast

Verb

  1. To cast off; shed.
  2. To remove from the cast of a production.
    • The experiment to offcast Davis began in 1937 with That Certain Woman; "She's a lady," we are told. - 1985, Tino Balio, The American film industry:
    • [...] and Paramount was not inclined to offcast its stars, the story was dropped. - 1997, Ann M. Sperber, Eric Lax, Bogart:
    • White actresses were able to maintain a more multidimensional star persona than actresses of color, thanks in large part to their ability to off-cast themselves in challenging roles and control their off-screen image...

Forms

offcasts offcasting offcast offcasted off-cast