trace off
v.— «She got a warning that she’d be evicted if she didn’t pay her rent within a certain time. She had paid her rent, however, and checks with her bank indicated that the cheque had been encashed fairly promptly too. She therefore wrote her landlord a letter “tracing him off” as we say here…(cussing him out).» —“A Happy Ending!” by Mad Bull The Mad Bull’s Blog Sept. 5, 2002. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
Old. Elderly. Senior. Why are we so uncomfortable when we talk about reaching a certain point in life? An 82-year-old seeks a more positive term to describe how she feels about her age. And: a linguist helps solve a famous kidnapping case, using the...
