Idiomatic, Slang To defeat (especially in an argument), get the better of, achieve a success over, gain an advantage or win points over, make a point to the detriment or at the expense of, make appear foolish. Sometimes with particle on (someone).
The old hag never missed out on any opportunity to score off on her daughter-in-law.
Whether it was politics, trade, competition in industry, snobbery, boasting, self-advertisement, or gossip, the object was to score off one's adversary and put him down.
2 more examples
Aunt Laura wore an air of overpowering satisfaction. Evidently she had already triumphed, and she smiled so cheerfully at Edwin that he felt convinced that she had scored him off in some way.
You'd be worked up if you had just been scored off by Aubrey Upjohn, with that loathsome self-satisfied look on his face as if he'd been rebuking a pimply pupil at his beastly school for shuffling his feet in church.1960, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, chapter XVIII, in Jeeves in the Offing, London: Herbert Jenkins, →OCLC:
2
Idiomatic, Separable To delete or remove (especially from a list); to score out, strike out or strike off, cross out or cross off; to draw a line through.
You can score off my name, I quit.
You can score my name off, I quit.
3 more examples
He will keep the roll and score off the name of any Boy absent twice.
On the certificate of birth of Francis E. Dec, the name “Frank” has been scored off and “Francis” inserted above.
More people were simply scored off the list of unemployed than found employment through employment bureaux.
3
Archaic, Slang To defeat (someone) verbally; to win a confrontation with words; to tell (someone) off.
4
Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see score, off. To score from.
A field goal or point after touchdown may be scored off a drop kick.
Derived terms
score-off
score-off
noun
Etymology Deverbal from score off.
1
Rare The action or result of scoring off someone (a rebuttal, a point won).
There were a thousand and one gems of café-chatter, of tit-for-tattle – of score-offs and well-rubbed-ins.1930, Wyndham Lewis, The Apes of God, page 354:
[…] the Minister should come in here and use the occasion of the making of his statement on such an important matter as the Estimate for his Department as a political score-off on his opponents.1955, Oireachtas [Irish Parliament], Díosbóireachtaí párlaiminte: tuairisc oifigiúil [Parliamentary debates: official report], volume 150, p. 294: