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Write off

Idiomatic Phrase
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

A phrasal verb idiom meaning to dismiss something as unimportant, cancel a debt, or regard a person or idea as a failure; in literary analysis, it can explore themes of redemption, loss, societal dismissal, or the erasure of identity and potential.

Detailed Definition
Write off means to dismiss, disregard, abandon hope for, cancel as a loss, or judge something no longer worth attention. In poetry, the idiom can describe people, dreams, debts, damaged objects, failed relationships, or entire communities treated as expendable. Its accounting origin gives it a cold bureaucratic tone, useful for social critique. A poet may use it to expose how language can erase value. The phrase is powerful when the written-off person or thing still possesses dignity, memory, or hidden possibility.
Example
Example in poetry:
A war poem might write off the ruined bridge as lost, though children later cross it in dreams; In satire, the banker writes off the poor man's hopes as if they were bad debts; The phrase means to dismiss something as a failure or loss; A poet can use it for cold judgement and resistance to it.
Additional Notes
Write off can mean dismiss as worthless, abandon hope for, cancel a debt, or declare something a total loss after damage. In poetry, this range is useful: people, places, dreams, debts, and wrecked vehicles may all be written off. The phrase connects judgement with writing, accounts, and official records. Students should ask who has the authority to write something off and whether the dismissed subject retains hidden value. It pairs well with ledgers, reports, ruins, and rejected lives.
Also Known As
dismiss
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