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Glite Dictionary
tee-off

tee-off

1 5.8
The first hit in golf from the tee to start a hole
  • noun
  • /tiː ɔf/
  • Specialized
translation icon : salida
  • His tee-off set the pace for the rest of the game.

Examples

  • The tournament will begin with the first tee-off at 8 a.m.

  • She waited patiently for her tee-off on the third hole.

  • The tee-off was scheduled for 10 AM.

  • He had a perfect tee-off on the first hole.

  • My friends and I have an early morning tee-off scheduled for our weekend golf game.

  • The tournament starts with the first tee-off at 10 a.m. sharp, so be ready!

  • He was nervous about his first tee-off in the championship, but he managed to hit a great shot.

Surface Forms

tee-off singular
tee-offs plural

Morphology

tee-off = tee off (transparent) = off + tee

The noun directly names the act expressed by the phrasal verb 'tee off', so the meaning follows straightforwardly from the base expression.

Etymology

Tee-off comes from golf: you put the ball on a small peg called a tee and hit it off, where off means 'away' or 'start', so a tee-off is the first shot that begins play. A helpful way to remember it is like 'kick-off' in football or 'take-off' for planes, where 'off' shows the action has started.