Lexic.us

Definition of Off-the-wall

1. Adjective. Conspicuously or grossly unconventional or unusual. "Outre and affected stage antics"

Definition of Off-the-wall

1. Adjective. (idiomatic) Wildly unconventional; bizarre; absurd. ¹

2. Adjective. (idiomatic) Greatly inappropriate. ¹

¹ Source: wiktionary.com

Lexicographical Neighbors of Off-the-wall

Literary usage of Off-the-wall

Below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and/or classical literature:

1. The Encyclopaedia Britannica: A Dictionary of Arts, Sciences, and General by Thomas Spencer Baynes (1888)
"... and washing old papers from off the wall", should always be insisted upon by the owner of a house, as accumulations of paste, colours, and size are apt ..."

2. Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research by American Society for Psychical Research (1910)
"He was told that quite a large piece of plastering had come off the wall in the ... He said that in no case was any plastering off the wall at a height ..."

3. Reports of Cases Argued and Determined in the Supreme Judicial Court of the by Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, Ephraim Williams, Dudley Atkins Tyng, Octavius Pickering, Theron Metcalf, Luther Stearns Cushing, Horace Gray, Charles Allen, Albert Gallatin Browne (1899)
"Inhabitants of Rockport. stone had been off the wall more than twenty-four ... The carriage went over backwards off the wall, and I struck on my feet at the ..."

4. Spons' Dictionary of Engineering, Civil, Mechanical, Military, and Naval by Edward Spon, Oliver Byrne (1872)
"... tendency to draw the wall-plate off the wall. The ordinary methed of framing these beams together, so as to send the strains in the directions required, ..."

5. The Encyclopaedia of Sport by Frederick George Aflalo, Hedley Peek (1897)
"The Player who returns the Service should vary as much as he can the pace and angle at which his strokes come off the wall, and must notice the weak points ..."

6. Recreation by George O. Shields, American Canoe Association, League of American Sportsmen (1899)
"For the first 1-5 of a second he led me by a length, as he hastily started to slide off the wall. That, however, was his undoing. If. like " Crocket's coon ..."

Other Resources: