To write off is to damage beyond repair, or to accept a loss. Write off the car.
The accounting sense came first and the car sense followed from it. To write off a person is the cruellest use and means deciding they are hopeless.
1phrasewrite offTo damage beyond repair, or to accept a loss.
“The insurer chose to write off a car worth more than the repair.”
write off is a phrase.
Practised in Phrasal Verbs