throw off

See also: throw-off and throwoff

English

throw off (third-person singular simple present throws off, present participle throwing off, simple past threw off, past participle thrown off)

(idiomatic) To confuse; especially, to lose a pursuer.
I never saw her without glasses before, so it threw me off when she got contact lenses.
(idiomatic) To introduce errors or inaccuracies; to skew.
The dirt in the apparatus threw off the results.
(transitive) Of a horse, to eject its rider.
To expel, reject, or renounce.
- 1941 March, “Notes and News: Railway Isolation in the Pennines”, in Railway Magazine, page 140:
  This is the branch of the Midland Division of the L.M.S.R. from Garsdale to Hawes, incidentally the only branch thrown off by the Settle and Carlisle main line in the 73 miles of its length from Settle junction to Petteril junction, Carlisle.
To give forth in an unpremeditated manner.

lose a pursuer

skew by introducing errors or inaccuracies

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