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off-the-rack

off-the-rack

7 4.4
Clothes made in standard sizes and sold in stores, not made for one person
  • adjective
  • /ˌɔf ðə ˈræk/
  • US
translation icon : de talla estándar
  • The dress she wore to the party was an elegant off-the-rack design.
  • an off-the-rack suit
  • an off-the-rack dress
  • off-the-rack clothes

It's a really good cut and that's hard to find off off the rack, as it were.

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Examples

  • Off-the-rack suits are not made specifically for your body, but for someone else's.

    Blog text (20)
  • After all, everybody can simply go down to their local discount store and buy something off the rack.

    Blog text (22)
  • - Did you buy that off the rack?

  • Every woman in the city has one of these, right off the rack.

    Fiction book (1999)
  • I need two new suits off the rack.

  • As they speak, a rumpled, 50ish man in an off-the-rack suit gets out.

    Fiction book (2001)
  • She pulled off the jacket and threw it onto the counter, grabbing another one off the rack.

    Fiction book (1994)
  • He arrived at class in his best jacket, a sporty blue windbreaker fresh off the rack from Sears.

  • At the same time, off-the-rack casual and sportswear are so popular and so prevalent that all an artist needs is a stylist to pull their look together.

    Academic text (2006)
  • He prefers to buy off-the-rack suits instead of customized ones.

Synonyms

store-bought
vsoff-the-rack
26 2.3

People buy it in a shop or store instead of making it at home

refers specifically to garments sold in standard sizes from stock
off the shelf
vsoff-the-rack
7 3.3

An item you can buy and use right away that is not made for you

is specific to ready-made clothing rather than all products
ready-to-wear
vsoff-the-rack
3 3.5

Clothes made in standard sizes that are sold in stores

focuses on sale from stock rather than mass production
off-the-shelf
vsoff-the-rack
1 4.1

Made in common sizes and sold ready to use

is limited to clothing rather than any product
off-the-peg
vsoff-the-rack
  • UK
1 6.0

Clothes made in standard sizes that you can buy

has identical meaning but is a different expression form

Antonyms

14 3.8

Made for one person to match their needs

How Ready-made

ready-made
3 3.4
off-the-rack
  • US
7 4.4
bespoke
  • UK
7 6.9

Surface Forms

off-the-rack positive

Morphology

off-the-rack = rack (transparent) = off + the + rack

The phrase literally denotes items taken 'off' a store 'rack', so learners can infer 'ready-made' clothing from the components. [Postprocessing: moved 'off' from base_words to prefix]

Etymology

The word off-the-rack comes from the idea of taking a garment off the rack in a shop, where off means 'away from' and rack is a 'place to hang clothes'. So an off-the-rack item is already made and ready to buy, not made to fit you.