Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Happening, done, or made only once.
- noun Something that is not repeated or reproduced.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective Occurring
once ;one-time . - noun idiomatic Something that is done, created, etc. only
once , and oftenquickly ,simply , orimprovisationally .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun a happening that occurs only once and is not repeated
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Fiscal discipline is theoretically a laudable goal, though in this case the agreement won't prevent governments from embarking on Keynesian spending sprees as "one-off and temporary measures"—the definition of "one-off" presumably being in the eye of the beholder.
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These so-called one-off expenses are not as uncommon as people think.
Tough Love for Retirees Shefali Anand 2011
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Each of the Park Avenue Armory performances is an Event - that is, a one-off Cunningham anthology.
NYT > Home Page By ALASTAIR MACAULAY 2011
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The damning report said the violence could not be described as a "one-off" because of evidence that 1QLR troops abused and mistreated Iraqi civilians on other occasions.
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In China, Xia Bom, an adviser to the People's Bank of China, China's central bank, did not rule out this week a one-off revaluation upward of the Chinese currency.
Robert Lenzner: A Tipping Point for the Dollar and the Yuan Robert Lenzner 2011
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But because each Worldcon is a one-off event, fiscal prudence always wins over new ideas.
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Is it the sort of thing that only works as a one-off now and then on the basis of generosity more than anything else?
Scruffians Stamp: Sold to... Everyone! Hal Duncan 2009
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Except that was a one-off joke instead of the resolution of the entire series.
The God Tangent « 2009
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If you followed them back far enough, you might actually get to little tidbits and one-off quotes from “conservatives” that looked like they were dredged up out of context by Media Matters.
The Volokh Conspiracy » Why NFIB Is Challenging ObamaCare 2010
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Grief counseling can be a long-term process, a short-term affair or even a one-off, trumny and can occur on a one-to-one basis or in groupstrumny (Quote)
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