better off
457
3.5
- adjective
- /ˈbɛtər ɔf/
:
mejor
- You will be better off if you save money for the future.
- much better off
- financially better off
- economically better off
But are we not better off for making these changes?
- But are we not better off for making these changes?
- Climate scientists who say we'd be better off cooking with synthetic oil.
- They'd they'd be better off dead all around the world.
- And you know, it's they'd be better off leaving that sort of stuff behind.
- Do you think the the general public is better off with a curated reality?
- It doesn't mean that all white people are better off than all non white people.
- What you're much better off doing is documenting your journey.
- And therefore I'm strictly better off by bundling.
- So I'm trying to see if it if we would be better off, where we.
- And I think we'd be better off if if, if we did.
- And so the question is, are we better off from that?
Examples
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I think everyone's better off if I just stay put.
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Politics play a role here, and the sooner you learn that, the better off we'll all be.
Fiction book (1992) -
But are we not better off for making these changes?
-
And would we be better off if nobody had that idea?
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The people are actually better off in that case.
-
And so the question is, are we better off from that?
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People like that couple are much better off than you and me.
Fiction book (1990) -
Well, you're a lot better off without her, believe me.
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That's why the vast majority of people are better off buying index funds.
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After a two-block circuit, I decided I'd be better off going back to my apartment.
Fiction book (1990)
Synonyms
10
1.0
In a more successful, healthy, or suitable way
3
3.7
In a better position with more benefits and chances than others
How Well-Off
Surface Forms
Morphology
better + off
The meaning is compositionally derived: 'better' signals a comparative improvement and 'off' here marks a resultant state, so together they mean 'in a more favorable condition.' This is a common, predictable English pattern (with comparable equivalents in many languages), so a B1 learner who knows the constituents will usually infer the meaning.
Etymology
The phrase better off may come from the simple image of being better and also off a bad place, like stepping off a dangerous road onto safer ground. One popular story says being 'off' trouble left you better off, so today the phrase means 'in a more fortunate or better situation'.