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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].
  1. 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
  2. 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
  3. 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
  4. 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
  5. Your next world is your next world, and not to be squandered offhand.
    — from Far from the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy
  6. 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
  7. inconsiderate; uncircumspect[obs3], incircumspect[obs3]; off one's guard; unwary, unwatchful[obs3], unguarded; offhand.
    — from Roget's Thesaurus by Peter Mark Roget
  8. 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

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