throw off
SeparableThe object can go before or after the particle — but a pronoun MUST go in the middle: “clean it up”, never “clean up it”.
How to say it
Stress the particle, not the verb: throw OFF. Saying “THROW off” is the clearest learner tell — the verb stays light and the particle carries the beat.
A glide appears. Two vowels meet, so American English slips a /w/ between them: “throw off” → “throw-woff”. You do not insert it deliberately — it falls out of not stopping between the words.
2 meanings
- 1
To remove something quickly, or to shed a feeling.
- “He threw off his coat and dropped into the chair.”
- “She never quite threw off the cold she caught in January.”
Similar: shed, cast off
- 2
To confuse or mislead someone.
- “The change of accent threw me off completely.”
- “One wrong figure threw off the whole calculation.”
Similar: confuse, disrupt