English

Verb

score off ‎(third-person singular simple present scores off, present participle scoring off, simple past and past participle scored off)

1. (transitive, inseparable, idiomatic, slang) To defeat (especially in an argument), get the better of, achieve a success over, gain an advantage or win points over, make a point to the detriment or at the expense of, make appear foolish. Sometimes with particle on (someone).
   • The old hag never missed out on any opportunity to score off on her daughter-in-law.
   • Whether it was politics, trade, competition in industry, snobbery, boasting, self-advertisement, or gossip, the object was to score off one's adversary and put him down.
   • Aunt Laura wore an air of overpowering satisfaction. Evidently she had already triumphed, and she smiled so cheerfully at Edwin that he felt convinced that she had scored him off in some way.
   • 1960, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, “chapter XVIII”, in Jeeves in the Offing, London: Herbert Jenkins, OCLC 1227855:

     You'd be worked up if you had just been scored off by Aubrey Upjohn, with that loathsome self-satisfied look on his face as if he'd been rebuking a pimply pupil at his beastly school for shuffling his feet in church.

2. (transitive, separable, idiomatic) To delete or remove (especially from a list); to score out, strike out or strike off, cross out or cross off; to draw a line through.
   • You can score off my name, I quit.
   • You can score my name off, I quit.
   • He will keep the roll and score off the name of any Boy absent twice.
   • On the certificate of birth of Francis E. Dec, the name “Frank” has been scored off and “Francis” inserted above.
   • More people were simply scored off the list of unemployed than found employment through employment bureaux.
3. Used other than as an idiom: see score,‎ off. To score from.
   • A field goal or point after touchdown may be scored off a drop kick.

Derived terms

• score-off

Usage notes

• In sense 1 (defeat), this phrasal verb is inseparable and the object always appear after the particle (except for a pronoun, which must always precede the particle).
• In sense 2 (delete), this phrasal verb is separable and the object may appear before or after the particle (though more common after, to avoid ambiguities).

Translations

References

• "score off" (defeat; delete) in Harrap's Shorter, 2006, p. 841
• "score off" examples at Wordnik