offhand

Without planning or thinking ahead.

Adjective

  1. Without planning or thinking ahead.
    • She gave an offhand speech.
    • He must also be fluent in obscenity, offhand in sex. Most important of all, he must play tough. - 1976 June 7, Nik Cohn, “Inside the Tribal Rites of the New Saturday Night”, in New York Magazine:
  2. Careless; without sufficient thought or consideration.
    • He doesn't realise how hurtful his offhand remarks can be.
    • In September 2019, on the papal plane en route to Mozambique, Francis acknowledged the sharp opposition he faced from conservative detractors in the United States in an offhand remark. He said, it was “an honor that the...
  3. Curt, abrupt, unfriendly.
    • She was quite offhand with me yesterday.

Origin

From Middle English *ofhande, *ofhende, from Old English ofhende (“absent, lost”), ultimately from Proto-Germanic *abahandijaz. Equivalent to (and re-formed as) off- + hand. Cognate with Icelandic afhendur. Compare onhand.

Forms

more offhand most offhand off-hand

Synonyms

impromptu extemporaneous off-the-cuff

Related

off the top of one's head

Adverb

  1. Right away, immediately, without thinking about it.
    • Offhand, I'd guess that that's a yellow-bellied sapsucker.
    • We will have no more of this shilly-shallying! Call the Archbishop, and let the Prince and Princess be married offhand! - 1854, William Makepeace Thackeray, The Rose and the Ring:

    Synonyms: out of hand

  2. In an abrupt or unfriendly manner.

Forms

more offhand most offhand off-hand