Definition

1. Verb:
   • To reduce the estimated value of something (especially for accounting or tax purposes): To officially record that an asset has lost value or become worthless, often to claim a deduction.
   • To cancel (a debt): To acknowledge that a debt is unlikely to be paid and remove it from the accounts as an asset.
   • To concede the loss or worthlessness of something or somebody: To decide or accept that something is a total failure or that someone has no chance of success.
   • To write something fluently, and without hesitation: To compose text quickly and easily.

Usage Examples

• Verb (Accounting/Tax):
  • The company decided to write off the damaged equipment.
  • You can write off your home office expenses.
• Verb (Cancel a debt):
  • The bank was forced to write off the loan.
• Verb (Concede as a loss/failure):
  • After the engine failed, they had to write off the old car.
  • Don't write him off just because he lost the first match.
• Verb (Write fluently):
  • She can write off a thousand-word article in an hour.

Advanced Usage

• "to write something off as...": To categorize or dismiss something as a particular type of loss or failure.
  • He wrote off the experience as a learning opportunity.
  • The critics wrote off the film as a complete disaster.

Variants and Related Words

• Write-off (noun): Something (e.g., a debt, an asset, a vehicle) that has been officially recorded as a loss.
  • The bad loan became a total write-off for the bank.
  • The car was a write-off after the accident.

Synonyms

• Deduct (for tax/accounting sense).
• Cancel or forgive (for debt sense).
• Dismiss or disregard (for conceding failure sense).
• Dash off or compose quickly (for writing fluently sense).

Related Phrasal Verbs

(This is the target phrase itself; no further breakdown is needed.)

Related Idioms

• Write off the books: To remove an asset or debt from the official financial records.
  • The obsolete inventory was finally written off the books.

Verb

1. reduce the estimated value of something
   • For tax purposes you can write off the laser printer
2. cancel (a debt)
3. write something fluently, and without hesitation
4. concede the loss or worthlessness of something or somebody
   • write it off as a loss