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View synonyms for set off

set off

1

verb

  1. intr to embark on a journey
  2. tr to cause (a person) to act or do something, such as laugh or tell stories
  3. tr to cause to explode
  4. tr to act as a foil or contrast to, esp so as to improve

    that brooch sets your dress off well

  5. tr accounting to cancel a credit on (one account) against a debit on another, both of which are in the name of the same person, enterprise, etc
  6. intr to bring a claim by way of setoff
“Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged” 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012


noun

  1. anything that serves as a counterbalance
  2. anything that serves to contrast with or enhance something else; foil
  3. another name for setback See set back
  4. a counterbalancing debt or claim offered by a debtor against a creditor
  5. a cross claim brought by a debtor that partly offsets the creditor's claim See also counterclaim
“Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged” 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

set-off

2

noun

  1. printing a fault in which ink is transferred from a heavily inked or undried printed sheet to the sheet next to it in a pile Also called (esp Brit)offset
“Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged” 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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Example Sentences

Moreover, the noisy careers of Liszt and Thalberg serve as a set-off to the noiseless one of Chopin.

So much doubt should be relieved by the exhibition of some universally admitted fact as a set-off.

Against these disadvantages the very moderate hotel bills which Mr Margary was called upon to settle may have been some set-off.

As a set-off against this, no woman can have a child entirely her own except by incurring what are called "social disadvantages."

As though it were in some sense a set-off against something not delightful elsewhere.

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