torque off
To annoy, distress, or anger.
Meaning adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
“That rude comment really torqued me off.”
“Slow internet speeds always torque her off.”
“Does it torque you off when people arrive late?”
“He was completely torqued off when his flight got delayed for the third time.”
“It really torques me off when people leave their shopping carts in the middle of the parking lot instead of returning them.”
“My neighbor gets torqued off if I play my music even slightly too loud on the weekend.”
“The new office policy about lunch breaks is starting to torque off the entire staff.”
“The constant construction noise outside the window torques off the students who are trying to focus on their final exams.”
“The manager was visibly torqued off by the team's lack of progress on the critical project.”
disputed origin
The origin of the phrase is uncertain, though it is probably an alteration of the idiom *tick off*. It may stem from the metaphorical application of mechanical verbs to human emotions, a pattern observed in similar expressions such as *torque up*, *grind one's gears*, and *jacked up*. In these constructions, the person is treated as a mechanical object to be manipulated.
Last updated August 10, 2026