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Cast off   /kæst ɔf/   Listen
verb
Cast  v. t.  (past & past part. cast; pres. part. casting)  
1.
To send or drive by force; to throw; to fling; to hurl; to impel. "Uzziah prepared... slings to cast stones." "Cast thy garment about thee, and follow me." "We must be cast upon a certain island."
2.
To direct or turn, as the eyes. "How earnestly he cast his eyes upon me!"
3.
To drop; to deposit; as, to cast a ballot.
4.
To throw down, as in wrestling.
5.
To throw up, as a mound, or rampart. "Thine enemies shall cast a trench (bank) about thee."
6.
To throw off; to eject; to shed; to lose. "His filth within being cast." "Neither shall your vine cast her fruit." "The creatures that cast the skin are the snake, the viper, etc."
7.
To bring forth prematurely; to slink. "Thy she-goats have not cast their young."
8.
To throw out or emit; to exhale. (Obs.) "This... casts a sulphureous smell."
9.
To cause to fall; to shed; to reflect; to throw; as, to cast a ray upon a screen; to cast light upon a subject.
10.
To impose; to bestow; to rest. "The government I cast upon my brother." "Cast thy burden upon the Lord."
11.
To dismiss; to discard; to cashier. (Obs.) "The state can not with safety cast him."
12.
To compute; to reckon; to calculate; as, to cast a horoscope. "Let it be cast and paid." "You cast the event of war, my noble lord."
13.
To contrive; to plan. (Archaic) "The cloister... had, I doubt not, been cast for (an orange-house)."
14.
To defeat in a lawsuit; to decide against; to convict; as, to be cast in damages. "She was cast to be hanged." "Were the case referred to any competent judge, they would inevitably be cast."
15.
To turn (the balance or scale); to overbalance; hence, to make preponderate; to decide; as, a casting voice. "How much interest casts the balance in cases dubious!"
16.
To form into a particular shape, by pouring liquid metal or other material into a mold; to fashion; to found; as, to cast bells, stoves, bullets.
17.
(Print.) To stereotype or electrotype.
18.
To fix, distribute, or allot, as the parts of a play among actors; also to assign (an actor) for a part. "Our parts in the other world will be new cast."
To cast anchor (Naut.) See under Anchor.
To cast a horoscope, to calculate it.
To cast a horse, To cast a sheep, or other animal, to throw with the feet upwards, in such a manner as to prevent its rising again.
To cast a shoe, to throw off or lose a shoe, said of a horse or ox.
To cast aside, to throw or push aside; to neglect; to reject as useless or inconvenient.
To cast away.
(a)
To throw away; to lavish; to waste. "Cast away a life"
(b)
To reject; to let perish. "Cast away his people." "Cast one away."
(c)
To wreck. "Cast away and sunk."
To cast by, to reject; to dismiss or discard; to throw away.
To cast down, to throw down; to destroy; to deject or depress, as the mind. "Why art thou cast down. O my soul?"
To cast forth, to throw out, or eject, as from an inclosed place; to emit; to send out.
To cast in one's lot with, to share the fortunes of.
To cast in one's teeth, to upbraid or abuse one for; to twin.
To cast lots. See under Lot.
To cast off.
(a)
To discard or reject; to drive away; to put off; to free one's self from.
(b)
(Hunting) To leave behind, as dogs; also, to set loose, or free, as dogs.
(c)
(Naut.) To untie, throw off, or let go, as a rope.
To cast off copy, (Print.), to estimate how much printed matter a given amount of copy will make, or how large the page must be in order that the copy may make a given number of pages.
To cast one's self on or To cast one's self upon to yield or submit one's self unreservedly to, as to the mercy of another.
To cast out, to throw out; to eject, as from a house; to cast forth; to expel; to utter.
To cast the lead (Naut.), to sound by dropping the lead to the bottom.
To cast the water (Med.), to examine the urine for signs of disease. (Obs.).
To cast up.
(a)
To throw up; to raise.
(b)
To compute; to reckon, as the cost.
(c)
To vomit.
(d)
To twit with; to throw in one's teeth.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Cast off" Quotes from Famous Books



... past but he does not deny his faith in humanity; his doctrine only postpones to a time secularly remote the redemption of humanity from its secular suffering. He begins at once to do good; he rescues his kind elder brother from the repudiation of the daughter whom he has cast off because her seduction has condemned her to a life of shame; he wins back the poor prostitute to her home, and forces her father to tolerate ...
— The Shadow of the Cathedral • Vicente Blasco Ibanez

... walk he has no equal at home or abroad; but his walk is not the highest. We feel that something is wanting, and yet we can hardly extol him too highly. He brought comedy into close relation with every-day life; he is the father of the modern French stage, which has gradually cast off the old conventional personages. The French dramatists of to-day are not men of genius like Moliere, but, in their airy, sparkling plays, they represent the freaks, follies, and fancies of society so exquisitely that nothing ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 15, No. 92, June, 1865 • Various

... gray of the early morning we saw a vessel approaching, which our friends on the Minnesota said was the Merrimac. Our fastenings were cast off, our machinery started, and we moved out to meet her half-way. We had come a long way to fight her, and did not intend to lose ...
— The Monitor and the Merrimac - Both sides of the story • J. L. Worden et al.

... past eleven as I rode by it, and when I got down to the jetty there was no yacht to be seen. She had been cast off from her moorings ten minutes before eleven, and as the clock struck she had sailed out of the harbor. I would have followed in a boat, but it was a fine starlight night, with a fresh wind blowing, and the sailors on ...
— The Queen of Hearts • Wilkie Collins

... some huge sea, whose tumbling hills, as they Turn restless sides about, are black or grey, Or green, or glittering with the golden flame; The wind has fallen now, but still the same The mighty army moves, as if to drown This lone, bare rock, whose shear scarped sides of brown Cast off the weight of waves in clouds of spray. Alas! what ships upon an evil day Bent over to the wind in this ill sea? What navy, whose rent bones lie wretchedly Beneath these cliffs? a mighty one it was, A fearful storm to bring such things ...
— The Earthly Paradise - A Poem • William Morris


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