sluff

Related to sluff: sloughing, sluff off

sluff off

1. Literally, to shed, peel, or scrape off an outer layer of something. In this usage, a noun or pronoun can be used between "sluff" and "off." A less common variant of "slough off." It can be pretty gross to watch a snake sluff off its skin, leaving behind a weird, hollow version of itself.
2. To dismiss, ignore, or minimize the importance of someone or something. In this usage, a noun or pronoun can be used between "sluff" and "off." A less common variant of "slough off." He kept heckling me during the show, but I sluffed him off and kept performing. The senator just sluffed off the journalist's comments, describing them later as "baseless" and "incendiary."
3. To procrastinate or avoid doing work. In this usage, the phrase is sometimes followed by a noun indicating the thing being avoided. A less common variant of "slough off." If you keep sluffing off, we'll be forced to give you a formal warning. I decided to sluff off my essay for the weekend and hang out with my friends instead.
See also: off, sluff
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

sluff (off)

Sl. to waste time; to goof off. Watch him. He will sluff off if you don't keep after him. He won't sluff. I know I can trust him.
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs.

sluff (off)

and slough (off)
in. to waste time; to goof off. Watch him. He will sluff off if you don’t keep after him.
See also: off, sluff

sluff

verb
See sluff off
McGraw-Hill's Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions
See also:
  • blow off
  • blow someone/something off
  • base off (of) (something else)
  • check off
  • bite off
  • blow off the map
  • brass off
  • brass someone off
  • brassed off
  • call off
References in periodicals archive
Absolutely no one sluffed off this project (finals are 20 percent of their semester grade).
Art in a box. (recycling renaissance)
Pennington.(57) As a result, the Eighth Circuit sluffed off what would have been a valid statutory exemption defense in one brief, incorrectly reasoned paragraph, wrongly opining that Clayton Act section 6 only protects unions, not employers, and then focused virtually all of its labor exemption attention on the nonstatutory Jewel Tea/Pennington prong.
Brown v. Pro Football, Inc.: the Supreme Court gets it right for the wrong reasons
In recent years more and more European nations have sluffed off American leadership in drug policy and struck out in new directions of their own.
De-Americanizing Drug Policy: The Search for Alternatives for Failed Repression
"Ah wer fair sluffed abaat that, cos Ah'd looked forrard ter showin' it off as a champion o' fifty feights.
A 'ard nut ter crack