off pat

8.9

Learned so well that you can say or do it without thinking

idiom

: de memoria

He can recite all the Shakespeare sonnets off pat after weeks of practice.

Examples

She knows her speech off pat.
Make sure you know the evacuation procedure off pat before the drill.
She answered every question off pat in the spelling bee final.
Do you have the lines off pat for the play?
She knows the speech off pat and can deliver it without any notes.
After years of practice, he can recite the song off pat.
The dancer performed the routine off pat, impressing the judges.

Synonyms

down pat

vsoff pat

Informal

8 7.5

Learned so well you can do it without thinking

is used in the same way but appears as a fixed adjective phrase

to have down

vsoff pat

1 4.1

Know how to do something so well you can do it without thinking

is the same mastery but described as a static learned condition

Antonyms

hesitant

73 3.2

Slow to act or speak because you feel unsure

unprepared

69 2.8

Not ready for something because the things you need or a plan are missing

How Prepared

off pat

8.9

prepared

103 1.3

ready

∞ 1.0

unprepared

69 2.8

Surface Forms

off pat positive

Morphology

off + pat

The adverb 'pat' already carries the core meaning of doing something exactly or perfectly, so a learner who knows 'pat' could plausibly infer much of the phrase. However, the role of 'off' in producing the specific sense 'from memory/without hesitation' is not a straightforward compositional use and the collocation is somewhat idiomatic and regionally marked, so the overall meaning is only partially predictable.

Etymology

Off pat may come from an old use where pat meant 'exact' and off meant 'from'. Imagine a line you can say that fits like a perfect puzzle piece and comes out without thinking, so off pat means 'learned perfectly'.