brush off

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brush off (third-person singular simple present brushes off, present participle brushing off, simple past and past participle brushed off)

1. (idiomatic) To disregard (something), to dismiss or ignore (someone), as unimportant.

   Synonym: shrug off

   • 1960, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, chapter XVIII, in Jeeves in the Offing, London: Herbert Jenkins, →OCLC:

     Again I begged her to keep an eye on her blood pressure and not get so worked up, and once more she brushed me off, this time with a curt request that I would go and boil my head.

   • 2026 February 7, Richard Luscombe, Shrai Popat, Robert Mackey, “Trump refuses to apologize for video with racist imagery of Obamas posted on his social media”, in The Guardian‎^[1], →ISSN:

     In a statement sent to the Guardian early on Friday, hours before Trump’s post was taken down, Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, attempted to brush off the outrage.

2. (dated) To depart with a sweeping motion; to rush away.
   • 1765, [Oliver] Goldsmith, The Haunch of Venison, a Poetical Epistle to Lord Clare, Dublin: […] W. Whitestone, […], published 1776, →OCLC, page 8:

     Thus, ſeizing his hat, he bruſh’d off like the wind, / And the Porter and Eatables follow’d behind.

3. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see brush,‎ off. To remove something with a brush.

brush off (plural brush offs)

1. Nonstandard spelling of brush-off.