put off — discourage or repel
phrasal verbB2IELTS 6+neutralcommon
to make someone not want to do something, or to lose interest in it.
Say it like a native
Textbook The unpleasant odour diminished my appetite considerably.
Native The smell really put me off my food.
'Put off' is the everyday verb for losing appetite/interest; 'diminished my appetite' is clinical.
Pattern: put off + noun/pronoun
In use
- The smell of smoke really put me off eating in that restaurant.communication
- Some people are put off by the idea of public speaking because they feel nervous in front of an audience.IELTS speaking
Common mistake
✗ The long queue put off me.
✓ The long queue put me off.
With a pronoun, the object goes in the middle: 'put me off'.
Common collocations
put + someone + off— put me off, off my food, off the idea, off completely
Don't confuse it
Not the same as 'put out', which means to extinguish something like a fire.
Related
- put off (postpone) — Another meaning of 'put off' is 'postpone'; compare the examples to keep the meanings separate.