Sentence Examples:
Make a list of offhand, homely, or picturesque expressions you have heard him employ, and ask yourself what it is in these expressions that has made them linger in your memory.
Nancy did not like Cyril, but she pitied him and was as friendly with him, in her offhand, boyish fashion, as she was with every one.
To the left sagged a tormented male victim of many ailments meticulously cataloged below, but in too fine print for offhand reading by one in a hurry.
It seems to me a heedless notion, our common one, that he sat like a bird on the bough; and sang forth, free and offhand, never knowing the troubles of other men.
I could think, offhand, of half a dozen ways of annihilating these wretches without risking a single hair of any decent person's head.
If from the beginning you practice making your speeches in rebuttal offhand, you will constantly gain in confidence when you are called on to speak.
As has been said, one searches in vain through the whole course of his poetry for a blithe, musical, gay or serious, offhand poem, the true lyric kind.
She overwhelmed Helene with questions; and Helene, with a hardihood and facility at which she herself was amazed, poured into her ears a story, every detail of which she invented offhand.
At the office he spoke in an offhand way of the pleasant evenings a man can have in town, and pitied the prosaic beggars who never stir from the house at night.
Weston, the two girls, and the college boys whose raucous voices and offhand manners had grated upon him ever since leaving San Francisco.
Fitzgerald had buffeted the high and low places; he seldom made mistakes in judging men offhand, an art acquired only after many initial blunders.
To the novice it is something of a surprise to find that books by men whom he knows to be eminent for their ingenuity and their learning are condemned in very offhand fashion by quite young men, who as yet have attained to little learning and to no eminence at all.
He found himself assenting offhand to the reasonable theorem that a man who produced wealth was entitled to what he produced.
Should they ever be pitted against each other, it would be impossible for anyone to determine offhand which would be the victor.
His gruff voice took on a kindlier tone, and in an offhand manner intended to seem casual he would ask where she had been that day or what book she was reading.
These offhand efforts were made sometimes in a corn field, at others in the forests, and not infrequently in some distant barn with the horse and ox for my auditors.
Frank liked him because he took life in a hearty, jovial way, rather rough and offhand for this somewhat quiet and reserved household.
I was provoked at the nonchalant ease with which this fellow did offhand a thing I had been trying to work myself up to for several days, and had finally abandoned from sheer lack of courage.
The three men who had entered the room last were Jim terrors right on their looks, and their easy, offhand manner froze the blood in the veins of the conspirators.
You cannot write a story about a wand of death without knowing what a wand of death is; and, conversely, if you have thought of such a splendid title you cannot jettison it offhand.
The name seems not altogether unfamiliar to me, and as a man who has been for some years a schoolmaster I suppose I ought to be able to say, offhand, exactly where it is.
Fellows who have rascally faces have only one course to take, and that is to remain honest; otherwise they would be arrested offhand.
To a wild, offhand, sailor-like hilarity of disposition in hours of leisure, he united a grave, stern energy of character while employed in the performance of his duties.
In apparently offhand manner, an order is written out on an uptown firm for several articles of food, clothing, bedding, and small household furniture.
All this seems strangely offhand and informal, but he reasons that such, being of daily occurrence, sentimental scruples are in natural abeyance.
When shielding his friend from possible embarrassments, there was such apparent offhand frankness that for the time Oswald forgot former stresses.
I am merely speaking offhand in a general way, stating that the hickories, open bud and scale bud, both seem to cross rather freely back and forth.
It is fair to assume that this other man, being a code expert, already has memorized the key so that he can read the dispatch almost offhand.
How little in accordance with theological gentleness it is to condemn him offhand, and that before the indiscreet vulgar!
How could I explain, offhand, to this stranger, the big boss, the little boss, the State boss, the ward boss, the county boss, all burrowing underneath our theoretical government!
You know it's very embarrassing not to be able to remember offhand how large your family is, but mine seems to vary from day to day, like the stock market.
It was what one expected of him, such a speech blurted in so offhand a manner, and the lawyer could barely suppress a threatening laugh.
Rodolphe, who had managed the fatality, thought the remark very offhand from a man in his position, comic even, and a little mean.
That a circle may be square, or that parallel lines may enclose a space, are propositions the truth of which may be denied offhand.
Poppins had an offhand, irreverent way of speaking, especially on subjects which from their nature demanded delicacy, that was frequently shocking to Robinson.
Healthy, skillful, jolly, and offhand, she carried the issues of life and death, in which she was at home, with a lightness which made her easy to work with.
In his heart he blamed Rhodes that the prisoner had not been let escape during the absence of the girl, and also resented the offhand manner of the young American concerning the duty of a priest.
If he is too poor to buy a copy offhand, he saves up his pennies till he can get one, and he does not trouble himself about the commentators or the mulberry tree.
Court had a little habit of impulsively settling the affairs of nations offhand, and his last remark seemed to indicate that something of the kind was in his mind at present.
Towards ourselves the behavior of the people was rather offhand and independent, the young men especially being inclined to treat us to quite an unnecessary display of swagger.
And now this man with his offhand friendliness, who was thus holding him out a helping hand, seemed as an angel sent from heaven.
Well, not knowing what kind of field I generated with that plate, I couldn't tell you offhand, but it is probably something like this; you see, apparently what I did was not cut gravity off exactly, but changed the normal electrical charge in whatever object came into the field.
Grace laid down her work and, shaking her head, looked gravely at her interlocutor: "It is difficult to answer such a question offhand," she said.
He accedes in an offhand manner, and twice daily I surreptitiously examine the tension of the water-soaked cord, renewing the string repeatedly.
The terse idiom of the offhand dictation has been consistently retained and gives the true "show" color and flavor to the stirring scenes, adventures and incidents with which the book deals.
It is not always possible for the most profound student to offer offhand the true explanation of various facts of domestic life, but it is possible to approach the consideration of these questions with some hope of deciding whether the explanation offered is a true or a fictitious one.
And of that he himself was the cause, being a most insatiable and extravagant man, doing everything in an offhand manner, whether he was acquiring property or giving it away.
The latter soaked the bills away in his white-and-brown-striped trousers, and then he remarked, in an offhand sort of way: "Well, this is where you pass me up, ain'd it, so?"
He knows, however, as a good newspaper man, how to handle it when the exigencies of the newspaper day throw it up to him for offhand treatment.
He was cheery and genial to all, but somewhat offhand in his manners, giving the impression that he had seen life in social strata on some far lower horizon than the county society of Sussex.
This latter was rather too delicate a matter to broach offhand, and I had therefore been carefully watching for a favorable opening.
Funny thing, but I can still recall the date offhand, so indelibly had the promise of that day impressed itself on my mind.
I saw how her impressionable nature was affected by the scene, and made haste to assume the offhand air I thought most likely to overcome her apprehension.
He was a garrulous old man talking to men who loved him and who, though no servile worshipers of him or anyone else, encouraged him to reminiscence and the utterance of offhand opinion.
In fact, though one had wanted to marry her offhand, their general conduct compared very favorably with that of one or two whom she had met in English cities.
When asked by Roger to reduce the men to order, as the women could not sleep, he had shown himself offhand to the point of insolence, curt to the point of brutality.
A man might have a fair knowledge of elementary astronomy, and be unable to answer offhand such a question as, "Why is the ecliptic called the ecliptic?"
However learned and judicious an editor may be, we do not choose to submit to his judgment in the offhand decision of what is and what is not important.
Knowledge of the language, coupled with knowledge of the article whose sale they have come to promote, and an ability to quote credit terms offhand in terms of dollars and kilos, are important.
Skeptics are seldom willing to acquire the necessary faculties to test the assertions of the mystic, but prefer to judge him offhand, without regard to their own lack of qualification.
She talked of golf, inquiring, in an offhand sort of way, what my "handicap" was; evidently taking it for granted that, in common with the rest of the world, I had a "handicap."
Your self-confidence is ludicrous; you and such as you do not hesitate to judge offhand men who have spent a long life in the passionate pursuit of wisdom.
Many men there are in whom dogs confide instinctively; fewer who win offhand the confidence of children, and a rare few whom women trust at sight.
I saw him only with his clothes on; but I should say, speaking offhand, that he had at least fourteen rattles and a button.
Parrying his curiosity with some offhand remark, Matt pushed the letter into his pocket and went on with his examination of the car.
Finding the task not only burdensome, but slow, I suggested the use of a printed circular letter, but the proposal was vetoed offhand.
Accepting as a matter of course many cases that could not be arbitrated or settled offhand, he conducted them, with varying fortunes, through their several stages in the courts.
His friend had scoffed at the Principles when alone with him, but had learned them by heart after a couple of offhand readings.
This could not be done offhand, so he waited a convenient season, and asked for a conference when he felt sure it would be granted. Sara Wheeler received the detective in her sitting-room, and her manner was calm and collected as she asked him to make the interview as brief as possible.
One would say offhand, of course, that she had meant, by these incendiary proclamations, merely to frighten the Mayor into releasing me, and had not seen beyond that.
To this question, those who maintain that no handiwork of man exists which does not borrow from nature, or from something precedent to itself, may find a satisfactory answer offhand.
At any rate he and we know offhand that such philosophies are out of plumb and out of key and out of 'whack,' and have no business to speak up in the universe's name.
Was Jim's interested query; but on hearing his sister's account of the young millionaire's determined pursuit he volunteered in his offhand way to assist her.
Crude uncritical people, without a due respect for literary genius, would, on the strength of his conversation during that walk of mine, have characterized him offhand as a flamboyant liar.
From the fact of his working in this offhand and expeditious manner, he would cover some thirty feet of wall in a couple of days.
Just think of what he did in his offhand, prodigal fashion, seldom troubling to repeat a success, but pushing on to some new achievement.
It was a singular, innate sense; one of those unexplained faculties that enables its possessor to judge offhand, with certainty and precision, where others must weigh and reason.
They were both dressed in thoroughly country clothes which the official in command viewed with no kindly eye, as his offhand manner showed.
Hal tried not to seem too offhand, but it was quite impossible for her to gush, and she could not pretend a sudden affection just because of the engagement.
She was a woman of very pronounced opinions, and though you might accidentally hit upon a subject on which she had neither opinion nor knowledge, she would be happy to pronounce an opinion on it offhand with such conviction as to lead you to suppose she knew something about it.
I had not expected to have this pleasure this morning, and therefore am simply speaking offhand, and without consideration of my phrases, but I hope in entire frankness.
Soon the others came back again; Onions remarking with an offhand manner, as if he wanted to show himself at ease, that they should have a broiling day.
Those who confessed offhand were given the straight hint that their captors were not beyond accepting a bribe and letting the prisoner escape.
Now Grant was looking better, and happier, than she had ever seen him; and he was regarding her with offhand friendliness.
It seemed almost incredible that this man who climbed into the seat beside him could be so offhand about so momentous a thing as mounting and riding the invisible air, but he got in as if he were about to drive a familiar horse along a quiet country road.
It was strange to see Tom so dependent and obedient, he who always breezed in here and there with his cheery, offhand manner of authority.
She measured, I should say at an offhand guess, seventy-five feet from tip to tip lengthwise, and she was perhaps twenty feet in diameter through her middle.
He was about sixty-five years old, but he wore a bright red necktie, and was trying to smoke a very bad and strong cigar in as offhand a style as possible.
Having steered clear of this court, the only case we recall offhand is the Nye committee hearing in the Grocer Norris senatorial case.
As they outstrip one on the stairs he is left acutely aware of his brittle old bones and the fact that from college days he can recall offhand only two French verbs and one theorem.
Before we reached Wadi Junction, I had received an outline of what my future friends, amusements and duties were likely to be, as described in an offhand sketchy manner by my brother.
In a laughing, offhand way, full of false merriment she tried to explain, her brother-in-law listening the while with increasing gravity.
In the course of the evening I got my friend who had brought me to the place to ask one of the party, in a sort of offhand manner, whether he and his friends were not afraid of a detective officer coming amongst them and giving information to the authorities of all he saw and heard.
You might not, no doubt, be able to say offhand whether he was Bertram Wooster the novelist, or Bertram Wooster the founder of a new school of thought; but you would have an uneasy feeling that you were exposing your ignorance if you did not give the impression of familiarity with the name.
Churchill himself insists he cannot speak well impromptu, and I have heard that his son Randolph, recently seated in Parliament, is considered a better offhand speaker than his father.
He kept telling himself that he must walk slowly, that he must in no way betray himself, that he must appear indifferent and offhand and inconspicuous to every one he chanced to pass.
The marquis was early on the ground, going about amongst his guests, and showing a friendly offhand courtesy which prejudiced every one in his favor.
Still, considering the magnitude of the interests involved, and the position of affairs, we orators must make it our business to look a little farther than you who judge offhand; especially as we, your advisers, are responsible, while you, our audience, are not so.
To-day the one nest which had withstood a year's buffeting was demolished offhand, and twenty-two are now being built with frantic haste.
If she had been a frivolous, giggling thing, like most of them, I had made up my mind to do you a good turn by helping to get her engaged on the voyage, and should have seen her married offhand at Calcutta, and have come up and told you that you were well out of the scrape.