Sentence Examples:
Still, since she was his friend, ought she not to just drop an offhand hint that he was a more useful citizen where he was than in the Mounted?
Sir, I know enough, I hope, to defend an innocent man; but I can't promise, offhand, to save him, even from an unjust accusation.
Whenever he wanted directions he sent a message, or note with neither heading nor signature, to which she was obliged to reply in the same offhand style.
I could not, offhand, give a list of seventeen other books of similar power to make up the score.
An offhand observer is apt to err by assigning to a single cause what is partly due to others as well.
No, I suppose not; but here is where we come again to the real heart of all of these questions which so many of us feel able to solve offhand.
We shall draw from our little box a small white packet, and, though Nostradamus may offer us every secret of magician or alchemist in exchange for it, we shall refuse offhand.
However, Leonora observed that, without a doubt, her audience was interpreting her cordial offhand way with Rafael in the worst light possible.
It was too great a task for an offhand answer, and the suggestion was made that the aged one consult his minister.
Whatever they may have thought of Luck Lindsay just then, they replied politely, and did not tell him offhand that there was no possible opening for him in their companies.
"Well, it won't hurt you to skip a lesson and have dinner with me," Luck suggested in the offhand way that robbed the invitation of the sting of charity.
Charley thought it wonderful that the forester could offhand select such a strategic point.
The fatal conclusion of the physiologist flows from his assuming offhand another kind of functional dependence, and treating it as the only imaginable kind.
He felt that he should have been trying to square matters, but to raise offhand six hundred-odd dollars was a feat too impossible to even attempt.
This difference becomes especially clear when a lawyer examines professional people who can imagine offhand what is in no sense self-evident to persons in other walks of life.
President Francis asked me how much more I could bid, and I told him I could not state offhand.
I should say offhand that there was not one man in a hundred who was fighting consciously for any great recognized principle.
As a recipe for producing a pot of mice offhand, he says that the only thing necessary is partly to fill a vessel with corn and plug up the mouth of the vessel with an old dirty shirt.
McGraw remarking that this was rather offhand dealing with us; but all took it in good part and signed the agreement.
It must not be supposed that the gifts of Carl the Great were given, and his greetings spoken, offhand, as it were, by us.
The mechanism of the genesis of homosexuality put forward by Freud need not be dismissed offhand.
My answer was that it was not so easy to secure a presentation to the Emperor, offhand; that considerable time would be necessary in any case.
She never wept, she never gave a sign of sorrow, and she insisted upon talking about Teddy, in a dry offhand voice.
When I have only within these few minutes released you from your promise to do the thing offhand.
I called for supper, and while I was waiting for my joint of beef a stranger entered the room and gave his orders in a free, offhand manner that stamped him a person of quality.
The men who were sitting in the main parlor saluted the old man in the offhand manner of intimates.
Whether any reality is to be attributed to the unconscious wishes, and in what sense, I am not prepared to say offhand.
One drawback of my feast is that I have to write short to you; for there are other correspondents who on this occasion look for quick answers, and not all of them to be answered in an offhand way.
He could not measure swords with this old man, who stood near enough to his grave without being sent into it offhand.
"Don't trouble yourself, young gentleman," said the newcomer, in a good-humored, offhand way.
She gave him a brief, offhand account of her adventure without mentioning their guest's name.
Pete wrote the check and managed to conceal his surprise at the amount, which the attorney had mentioned in such an offhand way.
We've all majored in English except Jack, and I'll bet any one of us can give the others an exam offhand that they can't pass.
Rhodes wanted simply to sweep away all obstacles without giving the slightest thought to the consequences likely to follow on so offhand a manner of getting rid of difficulties.
Whitey sat down, sort of offhand and careless-like, and to his pained surprise, no one noticed the boots.
In the morning, however, he was all boy again, even attempting once or twice to tease Diana, in a boy's offhand manner.
"Why, I don't know as I'd want to commit myself in too offhand a way," replied Hal, slowly, as though thinking.
I have no respect for a lawyer who does not know certain fundamental definitions by heart; and I have less respect for the preacher who cannot repeat the eleventh chapter of Hebrews offhand.
And that question I can answer offhand, without taking thought, and be sure that I am right.
It was a large question to be answered offhand, but she broke the back of it with a simple, "Yes."
A couple of pages might be filled almost offhand with the genuine compliments of his contemporaries, and he will probably remain a "poet's poet" as long as poets write in English.
I do not pretend to deny it offhand, but I must insist on these leanings being understood in the sense of my premises.
Perhaps, from my buying offhand a fifty-dollar book she had thought me one of the rich, and had begun to suspect I was keeping her waiting on me only because I found her extremely easy to look at.
Of course, I can't tell you offhand what the value of the stock is, but I'll make inquiries at once.
I didn't much like his offhand way of asking; not that it wasn't a perfectly legitimate query.
I've always thought it was a bit hard on a woman to expect her to answer an offer of marriage offhand.
If this were a free country, I could mention offhand a score of men within a stone's throw; an innkeeper, a doctor, a shopkeeper, a lawyer, a civil servant.
Her face was whiter than ever, and, just offhand, I should have said that something had shaken her.
And Blue Jeans hadn't been able to think offhand of an objection; not one which he wanted to voice.
Steve did not think he would kill them offhand, but he was very sure they would not be at liberty to return home.
In order to reach the Slavs and Italians there must be native missionaries, and these cannot be found offhand.
Tell me, offhand, something about the mortgages, and the prospects of the estate; assume for the moment that I am to be the unfortunate purchaser of this Paradise.
He had entered their house in his offhand way, and now carelessly seized the reins, and meant to direct their fortunes as he liked.
He greeted her as though nothing was amiss, and began chatting in an offhand manner, as if to prevent any question from her.
My land, he's as offhand about 'em as if they were circulars, and I don't believe he answers one in six.
Then I'll explain about the price of the dinner, etc., all in a perfectly offhand manner, and let them do the rest.
Undoubtedly he should have told us about it, but I am not prepared to accept, offhand, that his silence was the silence of a guilty man.
Now if you give me time I can slick up an answer, so it'll sound like the truth and mean something else; but as an offhand liar I'm a frost.
The offhand word of a man full of knowledge is worth a great deal more than the carefully prepared utterance of a person who having spoken once has nothing more to say.
He spoke in a natural, offhand manner, as if there was nothing unusual in what he was saying.
I can only do what I can, but remember, I am not going to be married offhand either to Louis or anybody else.
I need not say that I am not throwing this idea out right and left to employers with any hopeful notion that it will be generally acted on offhand.
It would be almost impossible for a stranger wandering about to say offhand which town he was in.
His offhand speeches were not always absolutely welcome, despite her former attitude and declarations.
"I can't remember him offhand, young lady, but perhaps if you tell me his name I may recollect whether I have met him," said the lecturer, smiling at her in a genial fashion.
He does not reject them offhand and altogether: what revolts him is that they are so often performed without understanding and right feeling.
As it was expected that the President would make a few offhand remarks, no one seems to have noticed its simple grandeur until it was printed in the newspapers.
As we have fallen into a descriptive vein it may be as well to describe the rest of our friends offhand.
He did not by any means overdose the people with attentions; but he had a hearty offhand way of addressing them that was very attractive.
That was the question, to answer which offhand I would, in my present excitement, have been ready to sacrifice a month's pay.
For it looked far too difficult to attempt thus offhand, even though reassured that none had ever been dropped.
Another thing; I don't know offhand what he's been sentenced for, but I'll wager there are ten thousand planets on which his crime would not be a crime.
"That is somewhat of a complicated problem, Mary Louise, and I can't guess it offhand, without due reflection," replied "Gran'pa Jim," whom others called Colonel Hathaway.
I told the woman in an offhand manner that one pound and a half was quite enough and politely asked her not to cut more.
My husband attempted an offhand and happy-go-lucky air which, I very soon saw, was merely a mask to hide his embarrassment.
I can't say offhand how far history bears him out, but I fancy that he is right to this extent: the lower deck has less flexibility of mind.
He knew how to shape a big "story," and could offhand dictate an interview that was all "meat."
In the morning he laughed to think of the description he had given to Shirley, in his offhand way, of "the perfect woman."
He spoke in a very loud, offhand way, and I thought it very unlike him not to see about the shoe, as he was generally wonderfully particular about loose nails in our shoes.
This phenomenal valley is not to be fully explained offhand; as Griggs says, there are many problems to work out.
There are still people, not few of them but many, who would be ready to declare, offhand, that one airplane flight in six ends in a disaster.
Copley had given an offhand promise; but Dolly saw that same want of the usual ready ease in his manner, and was not surprised when days passed and the money did not come.
Yet, merely guessing offhand, I think it quite probable that there is only one number that fits the case.
I also believe that it is as impossible for a man to answer offhand the question, "What is the best variety of tomato?"
I am not issuing a propaganda or writing a thesis for the purpose of having something to defend, but merely giving a few offhand facts that have benefited me in my work.
"Oh, just whistle as you pass," she said at last, in an offhand way, "and I'll come out if I feel inclined."
And then, having lured him into this tangled side issue, she began, as cool and offhand as you please.
You started out by thinking Jean was showing paranoid tendencies, and offhand I'm inclined to agree with you.
He couldn't tell you offhand whether tobacco was a thing to chew and smoke or the latest fox trot.
They would regret pitching him into space in such an offhand manner, he reminded himself, when they opened his case.
Critics will, of course, ridicule this offhand dismissing in a few sentences of the largest of world problems.
He took it with a smile, opened it offhand, glanced at what she had written, and flushed a vivid red.
To understand her, it was perhaps necessary to understand him, and if I could not hope to do this offhand, I could not fail to get some idea of the man from even the most casual look.
He drew rein as he saw Abe, and gave a military salute in a careless, offhand way that was in strict keeping with his appearance.
When he saw his opportunity he said offhand: "Too bad to spoil this elegant publicity, though."
"Here's the bread, Granny," she would say in an offhand voice, throwing the bread on the table.
Doc, as I've said before, is an educated man, and what he couldn't recall offhand about astronomy the newspapers quoted by chapter and verse.
If, after commencing the rite you do not complete it offhand, it does not count; you have acquired no merit, and you are not to expect any spiritual profit.
McClure gave an offhand conversational address on "The Making of a Magazine," the story of his own experience.
Yes, he had saved the day and, also offhand, the saving should be worth about twenty dollars when he returned to Anthony and reported.