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Joined: Nov 2004
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stranger
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OP
stranger
Joined: Nov 2004
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Offputting was a word my mother used from time to time. As a former English teacher she never used slang words. But I used the word around a couple of friends of mine, and they were baffled as to its meaning. The best I could come up with was that it was an extremely polite way of saying "repellant" as it relates to another person. We all had a good laugh over that, but I have been unable to find a definition in any of my dictionaries whether online or off. Any answers out there?
Thanks
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Joined: Sep 2001
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2001
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Joined: Oct 2001
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veteran
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veteran
Joined: Oct 2001
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Any answers out there?"Off-putting" is also known as practice putting, hawki75, because it is usually done off the fairway on a practice green. Was your mother a golfer? If she did a lot of off-putting, she probably had a low handicap. 
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Joined: Mar 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
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Hi, hawki; welcome aBoard! That is a very familiar expression to me, though I say it differently most of the time: as in, "One time I was encouraged to taste some Limburger, but was put off by the smell". Sometimes I say off-putting, however.
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Mar 2002
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Yes, I would say "I found the smell off-putting". Like Jackie, I would hyphenate the word.
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Joined: Nov 2004
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stranger
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OP
stranger
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Thanks to all who replied to my post about off-putting. My failure to include the hyphen was obviously significant in my failure to find the word in a dictionary. I'm glad to know that the definition I gave to my friends wasn't so far off after all. :-)
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Joined: Mar 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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the definition I gave to my friends wasn't so far off after all. Yeah--let's just hope they weren't put off by it! 
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Is another reason I don't play golf.
TEd
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Allo hawki
Yup, I've seen that word and heard it spoken before; enough so I feel it is part of common speech - BUT, stick around, and you'll come to the same conclusion we all come to...what's common in one part of the world isn't so in another.
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