Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
🗑️ No longer needed 🗑️ A discarded item
cast-off

cast-off

1 4.5
A thing, often clothing, that someone has thrown away
  • noun
  • /ˈkæstˌɔf/
translation icon : ropa desechada
  • I just love to rescue cast-offs and discards!
  • cast-off clothes
  • cast-off chairs

So he's basically a cast off, essentially.

Examples

  • I think some may even be his old cast-offs that he dumped on us.

    Blog text (21)

  • Her closet was overflowing with cast-offs that she no longer wore.

  • By the time we left, her bedroom floor was a solid mass of cast-off clothes.

    Fiction book (1998)

  • My dad is a professor of microbiology, and the microscope was a cast-off from one of his labs.

    Blog text (17)

  • I wear khaki Army cast-offs and a red brocade shirt that I didn't want to leave behind, held together with safety pins.

    Fiction book (1995)

  • Debbie still rode Barbara's cast-off pink bicycle with crooked training wheels.

    Fiction book (2002)

  • Rosemary had one—a cast-off from her parents—and promised to bring it the next day.

    Fiction book (2000)

  • A cursory examination proved that everything in the attic belonged to the Nicholsons or Andy: empty suitcases, a few cartons of china and glassware, plastic bags filled with cast-off clothing, and the like.

    Fiction book (1992)

  • The charity shop is filled with cast-offs donated by generous locals.

  • He decided to donate his cast-offs to help families in need.

Synonyms

discard
vscast-off
3 3.9

An item that someone has thrown away because they no longer want it

is the same but often used for clothing from a previous owner
castoff
vscast-off
2 4.4

An item no longer wanted and given away

refers specifically to items discarded or unwanted by a previous owner
throwout
vscast-off
3.8

An item that people throw away because they do not want it

is similar but commonly focuses on things thrown away rather than given away

Antonyms

treasure
676 1.1

Valuable items like gold or jewels that people keep

keepsake
22 3.9

An object kept to remind you of a person, place, or event

How Useful

cast-off
1 4.5
trash
  • US
444 1.0

Surface Forms

cast-off singular
cast-offs plural

Morphology

cast-off = cast-off (transparent) = cast + off

The noun is a straightforward nominal use of the adjective meaning something discarded.

Etymology

Cast-off comes from the parts cast ('to throw') and off ('away'), so as a noun a cast-off is an item someone has 'thrown away' or given away because they no longer need it.