to fling off
- phrasal verb
- /flɪŋ ɔf/
- Informal
- The author would often fling off short stories in a single afternoon.
Examples
-
Don't fling off your ideas so carelessly!
-
He flung off a hasty apology note before rushing out the door.
-
She managed to fling off a quick email before leaving the office.
-
I quickly fling off a few lines for my report.
-
She quickly fling off her notes before the meeting started.
-
He managed to fling off a rough draft of the report just in time.
-
After an hour, she decided to fling off a few ideas in her notebook.
Synonyms
Make something quickly with little effort
To write something quickly without much care
To put words down quickly without much thought
To send a message quickly without much thought
To write something quickly without much care
To write something quickly without much care
To make something quickly with little effort
Antonyms
How Quickly
- Informal
- Informal
Surface Forms
Morphology
Fling carries a sense of doing something quickly or impulsively and off adds a sense of doing it away/away-from, so a learner who knows both words could infer a general meaning of performing an action hastily or carelessly. However, the specific interpretation 'to write something quickly' is a more specialized collocation and not fully predictable from the parts, so it is only partially transparent.
Etymology
The phrasal verb fling off comes from the image of someone using fling (to throw) and off to push something away quickly, like throwing a coat off in one fast move. So it now means 'to do or write something quickly and without much care'.