takeoff
Pluraltakeoffs
- 1A launch or rise into the air or into flight, as by an aircraft, a rocket, a bird, or a high jumper.
Passengers must keep their seat belts fastened during takeoff and landing.
A powerful takeoff sent the high jumper soaring over the bar.
Similarlaunch, liftoff, ascent
Note
Here the phrasal verb take off becomes a noun, and the spelling marks the change: the plane takes off, two words, but its takeoff is one. Without an article it names a phase of flight, as in cleared for takeoff; with one it is a single event, smooth or rough, or laborious for a bird as heavy as the mute swan.
- 2A parody that makes fun of someone or something by imitating them.
The sketch was a sharp takeoff on late-night talk shows.
Her novel opens with a sly takeoff of a self-help bestseller.
Similarparody, spoof, lampoon, satire
Note
Two prepositions follow it, on and of. In Edward Bellamy's Equality a pamphlet turns out to be a "satirical take-off on the profit system", and Michelle Cliff says one of her titles was "a take-off of the Latin tracts", the kind headed On This or On That.
- 3The point from which one takes off, in particular the spot where a jumper leaves the ground.
Any jumper who steps beyond the takeoff is charged with a foul.
The riders walked the course, checking the ground at the takeoff for each fence.
Note
In jumping the takeoff can be ground rather than motion: the place a jumper leaves from, not the leap itself. The Encyclopaedia of Sport advises that it "should be selected with great care", with a pit of large dimensions on the landing side.
- 4The initial move by which a surfer catches a wave and starts to ride it.
On a steep, hollow wave, a late takeoff often ends in a wipeout.
He practiced his takeoff on small waves until he could pop up in one smooth motion.
Note
Surfers judge a takeoff by its timing, so the word gathers adjectives that say when: early or late. A late takeoff, made as the face steepens, is the bold one, and Bruce Brown's film The Endless Summer (1966) calls Steamer Lane "home of the world's latest takeoff".
- 5A count or measurement of quantities, especially of building materials.
The estimator ran a takeoff from the drawings to price the concrete and rebar.
Accurate takeoffs keep a contractor from ordering too much lumber.
Note
In construction the word belongs to the estimator, often in the full phrase quantity takeoff: before any price is given, every item on the drawings is counted or measured, from roof trusses to structural steel.
- 6In printing, the removal of sheets from the press.
In the old shop, an apprentice handled the takeoff while the pressman inked the type.
Careless takeoff could smudge the fresh ink before the sheets were hung to dry.
Note
The word belongs to the history of British printing, where takeoff was one routine step in the old print shop's day. It turns up now in accounts of those shops, not in the vocabulary of modern presses.
Practice
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Origin
Formed as a noun from the phrasal verb take off.