student asking question

What does it mean by off-the-cuff line?

teacher

Native speaker’s answer

Rebecca

The phrase "off the cuff" is used to say that someone speaks without pre-planning or rehearsal. It is an idiom that is most commonly used in daily speech as it would not be considered very formal. "Line" here simply means sentence or phrase. So the President is thanking him for that joke which he thinks came without planning. Ex: I didn't prepare a speech, so I will just say a few words off the cuff. Ex: Jon has a habit of making off-the-cuff remarks that he later regrets.

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