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Glite Dictionary
🏃 To take away quickly 🧹 To brush away
to whisk off

to whisk off

1 4.4
To take a person or thing away quickly from a place
  • phrasal verb
  • /wɪsk ɔf/
translation icon : llevar rápidamente
  • So you when you got there, I assume President Reagan had already been whisked off, but what had he?

Examples

  • I often stood staring at them, and once I made prolonged eye contact with an obese man whose face was blue with stubble, until I was whisked off into the nurses' lounge, where big band music emanated from the radio, and I was given a handful of sour balls by a trio of fussing women.

    Fiction book (1997)

  • You know, just just whisk me off right now to take me now and I will get married right here, right now.

  • So at great personal and diplomatic risk, they whisked him out of Argentina, brought him back to Israel where he stood trial and then was executed.

  • On that fateful day, my best friend Daisy had been whisked off to a boarding school against her vehement protests.

    Fiction book (1999)

  • Barely pausing to thump down his hold-all and his suitcase, he gathered up the whole family, Amir Khan included, and whisked them off for a drive, whistling as he drove.

    Fiction book (1994)

  • The guide quickly whisked off the tourists to their next adventure after the bus arrived.

  • After the announcement, the students were whisked off to the auditorium for an emergency meeting.

  • As soon as the show ended, the performers were whisked off the stage to prepare for the next act.

Synonyms

to whisk
vsto whisk off
41 3.4

To move someone or something quickly and lightly

is focused on removing something quickly and suddenly rather than light motion
to whisk away
vsto whisk off
8 3.9

Move someone or something quickly to another place

is the same meaning but uses a different following small word

Antonyms

to return
∞ 1.0

Go back to a place, state or activity

to bring back
436 1.7

Return someone or something to the place they came from

How Quickly

to snatch
136 3.0
to whisk off
1 4.4
to bundle off
  • Informal
7.7
to carry off
4 4.4

Surface Forms

whisk off infinitive
whisked off past
whisked off past participle
whisking off present participle
whisks off third person singular

Morphology

whisk + off

The sense 'to take someone or something away quickly and suddenly' is directly derivable from combining 'whisk' (to brush or sweep away quickly) with 'off' (indicating removal or away). This verb+particle composition expresses a clear motion/transfer meaning common in English and other languages, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents should be able to infer the MWE meaning.

Etymology

Whisk off comes from the image of a sudden, fast sweep or lift — the quick action of a whisk sending something off somewhere else — so it means 'to take someone or something away quickly and suddenly'.