Idiomatic To disregard (something), to dismiss or ignore (someone), as unimportant.
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.1960, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, chapter XVIII, in Jeeves in the Offing, London: Herbert Jenkins, →OCLC:
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.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, →ISSN:
2
Dated To depart with a sweeping motion; to rush away.
Thus, ſeizing his hat, he bruſh’d off like the wind, / And the Porter and Eatables follow’d behind.1765, [Oliver] Goldsmith, The Haunch of Venison, a Poetical Epistle to Lord Clare, Dublin: […] W. Whitestone, […], published 1776, →OCLC, page 8:
3
Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see brush, off. To remove something with a brush.
Derived terms
brush-off, brushoff
brush-off
noun
Etymology Deverbal from brush off.
1
An abrupt rebuff, a snub or curt rejection, a disdainful dismissal.
A halfhearted “thank you” may be a brush-off.
For the first time, we in the SF ghetto are beginning to get criticism – not brush-offs from literary snobs.