offthrow

English edit

Alternative forms edit

off-throw

Etymology edit

From off- +‎ throw.

Noun edit

offthrow (countable and uncountable, plural offthrows)

The act of throwing off; (by extension) liberation
- 1871, The Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London, page 3:
  The theory of a rise of a dome of strata from beneath the sea and the offthrow of the waters on all sides from that dome, their escape through lateral fractures in the upheaved chalk, together with a slow wearing back of the fractured and denuded edges of the chalk in the form of cliffs, […]
- 1879, John S. Stuart-Glennie, Europe and Asia:
  Improbable, therefore, it is that the offthrow of the Ottoman yoke by the former, will not be followed by the offthrow of the German and Russian yokes by the latter, Nationalities.
- 2013, C. W. Previté-Orton, Outlines of Medieval History, page 194:
  A general ferment, in fact, far different from the anarchy and barbaric invasions, was set up over Europe by these vast offthrows of activity by the French nobles, who thereby unconsciously made amends for the temporary misery they inflicted on their own country.
That which is thrown off (i.e. discarded, ejected, or emitted)
- 1848, Clifton Cleve, The book of inventions, page 20:
  […] comparatively speaking, few are convinced of, or perhaps acquainted with the fact, that not only do the bed-clothes intercept and retain a large proportion of this offthrow, but that it penetrates both beds and mattresses, which actually absorb a large proprtion of it, […]
- 1864, William Chambers, A History of Peeblesshire, page 515:
  In this latter or northern offthrow, nearly the whole of Peeblesshire consists, and the general dip or inclination of its rocks is accordingly northerly, or more strictly, towards north-north-west.
- 2002, Charles G. Finney, The Circus of Dr. Lao, page 50:
  These are the sports, the offthrows, of the universe instead of the species; these are the weird children of the lust of the spheres.
- 2004, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Arnold V. Miller, Hegel's Philosophy of Nature:
  One has, in fact, the old choice of regarding the higher integrations as queer offthrows of an infinitely improbable lower-order accident, or as the explanatory foundation of all that leads up to them.
- 2013, Robert Silverberg, Sailing to Byzantium:
  In its wake the ship leaves a photonic track so intense that it could be gathered up and weighed. It is the stardrive that issues this light: a ship eats space, and light is its offthrow.
- 2014, Andre Norton, Tales from High Hallack Volume Three:
  If Herta wished to burden herself with an extra mouth during the lean months, the care of a stranger's offthrow — that was her business.

Verb edit

offthrow (third-person singular simple present offthrows, present participle offthrowing, simple past offthrew, past participle offthrown)

(transitive, intransitive) To throw or cast off (all senses)
- 1858, John Ashford, London; Past, Present and Future, page 9:
  Thorns of the flesh in childhood man offthrows,
  Or passions such in headlong youth he knows; […]
- 1933, Corliss Lamont, Margaret Lamont, Russia Day by Day: A Travel Diary, volume 20, page 35:
  " […] I stand a scarecrow in this land
  That offthrew the yoke of autocracy."

Anagrams edit

throw off, throw-off