It could not be turned aside by any off-handed joke.    From Wordnik.com.  [Russell H. Conwell] Reference

He dated his use of the stuff in a sort of off-handed way.    From Wordnik.com.  [CNN Transcript Dec 2, 2004] Reference

He spoke in an off-handed way that indicated he wasn't boasting.    From Wordnik.com.  [Cachalot]

Bart's off-handed ingenuousness had completely disarmed the men.    From Wordnik.com.  [Bart Stirling's Road to Success Or, The Young Express Agent] Reference

In the most off-handed way, he responded, "When enough people die.".    From Wordnik.com.  [Casting Blame , Finding Solutions to The Middle East Conflagration] Reference

With an off-handed gesture she dismissed the Ladies who stood at the door.    From Wordnik.com.  [Claiming Of Sleeping Beauty]

The Obama transition team concedes the remark was careless and off-handed.    From Wordnik.com.  [CNN Transcript Nov 8, 2008] Reference

She had not been accustomed to your glib, off-handed, smartly dressed youths.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 14, No. 82, August, 1864] Reference

It seemed that the universe conspired to make my off-handed comment a reality.    From Wordnik.com.  [Angella Nazarian: A New Identity for a Mom of a Graduating Son: Part I] Reference

She says Black regrets that her "off-handed joke" left a different impression.    From Wordnik.com.  [Cathie Black Regrets That Whole 'Birth Control' Joke] Reference

He was manly and natural, -- free and off-handed to the verge of eccentricity.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 01, No. 01, November, 1857 A Magazine of Literature, Art, and Politics] Reference

Once again, I make an off-handed comment and you run with it and distort the point.    From Wordnik.com.  [Thirty-Two Ambassadors Praise Hillary's Foreign Policy Experience -- As First Lady] Reference

The remark was just off-handed musing, an excerpt from a long, free-ranging discussion.    From Wordnik.com.  [Jesus H. Christ! Vatican Pardons Lennon!] Reference

The only thing that caught my eye was the very off-handed blurb about The Foot Fist Way.    From Wordnik.com.  [This Week in DVD: Sex and the City, Leatherheads, Run Fatboy Run, The Godfather (The Coppola Restoration), and More | /Film] Reference

"Not that many people read the New York Times Magazine," Gibbs said in an off-handed way.    From Wordnik.com.  [Ken Blackwell: "Gibbsy" Steps in it] Reference

During their happier years he began off-handed affair with the daughter of their gardener.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Forgetting Room 7-8] Reference

But the Obama campaign has to do damage control over more than just one off-handed remark.    From Wordnik.com.  [CNN Transcript Mar 7, 2008] Reference

The obvious and off-handed answer is "Seattle," but that's a misleading oversimplification.    From Wordnik.com.  [water water everywhere and all the boards did shrink] Reference

"Who could keep it going forever?" said one of the soldiers, striving for an off-handed tone.    From Wordnik.com.  [Dalamar the Dark]

But just the kind of off-handed remark you often hear is that, yeah, the country's been wrecked.    From Wordnik.com.  [A Foreign Correspondent Reflects On Iraq War] Reference

Her outburst had embodied an off-handed imperiousness that enlarged my appreciation of her character.    From Wordnik.com.  [Asimov's Science Fiction]

Yes, it's an endless source of amusement for me that my off-handed commentary here gets people going.    From Wordnik.com.  [Did you know about my vortex?] Reference

Guiliani is an expert at the kind of off-handed yet pointed fear-mongering and fraying of the rule of law.    From Wordnik.com.  [3 days | Goblin Mercantile Exchange] Reference

This is a woman who can bandy about the word "billions" with an off-handed panache matched only by Carl Sagan.    From Wordnik.com.  [disjointed thursday thoughts on donkeys and elephants] Reference

He is also losing because of the off-handed way he discusses matters that are deeply personal and very important.    From Wordnik.com.  [Explaining the Town-Hall Protests] Reference

It was a scathing critique of the numbing and off-handed mind games Macedonia was subjected to by the Big Powers.    From Wordnik.com.  [Terrorists and Freedom Fighters] Reference

If a GOP candidate makes an off-handed comment like "Macaca" a la George Allen- it's enough to lose a Senate seat.    From Wordnik.com.  ["Ooh, you're young and virile and you've got a beautiful wife and kids. You're the first African-American president."] Reference

Frankly, it's little off-handed comments like that that speak volumes, and which make me want to say "why bother?".    From Wordnik.com.  [The Indecision is Over] Reference

The other night I made an off-handed comment, the meaning of which may have been misconstrued beyond what was said.    From Wordnik.com.  [Rob Dibble's apology] Reference

"Probably hasn't had time," said Varian in such an off-handed manner that Kai knew Paskutti hadn't mentioned it to her.    From Wordnik.com.  [Cattle Town] Reference

"Probably hasn't had time, " said Varian in such an off-handed manner that Kai knew Paskutti hadn't mentioned it to her.    From Wordnik.com.  [Dinosaur Planet]

The thing about the e-mail that made me uneasy was the off-handed and casual way the Obama worker seemed to deal with it.    From Wordnik.com.  [Fraud in Texas? "It looks like there was data entry error. You ended up being coded as BOTH a Hillary Clinton and a Barack Obama delegate."] Reference

The problem with Lenny is that he was very topical, full of off-handed references to things that don't make much sense now.    From Wordnik.com.  [Stop Me Before I Buy Again: The 2004 Annual Greed List!] Reference

About 5% of what came in from an off-handed temporary link (now gone) to an old post at a modest readership web comic site.    From Wordnik.com.  [R.I.P, Desmond Dekker] Reference

There is no off-handed glossing over of the question, "Why is a dead Egyptian wandering the halls of an east Texas nursing home?".    From Wordnik.com.  [play it again, Sam] Reference

This form of casual, use, this off-handed employment of us, while perhaps inappropriate for a free woman, was acceptable for a slave.    From Wordnik.com.  [Kajira Of Gor]

After all, The Note is a stomach-turning concoction of insider smugness, opposition-research spin and off-handed character assassination.    From Wordnik.com.  [Susan Madrak: Vision Check] Reference