Literary notes about Offhand (AI summary)
The term offhand is often employed to convey a casual, impromptu manner or to characterize remarks and actions that seem unpremeditated or even careless. Authors use it both to describe spontaneous or nonchalant dialogue—as when a character casually dismisses a significant question [1] or delivers a greeting with little ceremony [2, 3]—and to highlight decisions made in haste, such as settling a complex matter without due reflection [4, 5]. In some works, it serves as a subtle indicator of a character’s attitude or social disposition, reinforcing an image of informality or indifference in behavior [6, 7, 8].
- I hesitated just for a second or two, and then replied: “I suppose you hardly expect me to answer offhand so momentous a question as that, do you?
— from A Middy of the King: A Romance of the Old British Navy by Harry Collingwood - And how I resented the offhand manner in which the captain had extended his deplorable invitation!
— from Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas: An Underwater Tour of the World by Jules Verne - With offhand cordiality, Claude takes charge of this interesting friend.
— from Oswald Langdonor, Pierre and Paul Lanier. A Romance of 1894-1898 by Levi Jackson Hamilton - Ivan Ilyitch remembered that he had somehow not had time to go into the matter, so that the matter of the marriage had been settled offhand, in haste.
— from Short Stories by Fyodor Dostoyevsky - Your next world is your next world, and not to be squandered offhand.
— from Far from the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy - My friend threw out the information in a very offhand way, but I saw that he cocked his eye at me to see if I had followed his reasoning.
— from The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle - inconsiderate; uncircumspect[obs3], incircumspect[obs3]; off one's guard; unwary, unwatchful[obs3], unguarded; offhand.
— from Roget's Thesaurus by Peter Mark Roget - Natásha suddenly shrank into herself and involuntarily assumed an offhand air which alienated Princess Mary still more.
— from War and Peace by graf Leo Tolstoy