The Collaborative International Dictionary
off-color \off-color\ adj. humorously vulgar; mildly obscene; risque; as, an off-color joke.
Syn: bawdy, blue, ribald.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
Wiktionary
a. 1 Of the wrong color. 2 (context idiomatic English) dirty, vulgar or obscene 3 (context idiomatic English) different than usual 4 (context idiomatic English) in poor health alt. 1 Of the wrong color. 2 (context idiomatic English) dirty, vulgar or obscene 3 (context idiomatic English) different than usual 4 (context idiomatic English) in poor health
WordNet
adj. in violation of good taste even verging on the indecent; "an indelicate remark"; "an off-color joke" [syn: indelicate, off-colour]
humorously vulgar; "bawdy songs"; "off-color jokes"; "ribald language" [syn: bawdy, ribald]
Usage examples of "off-color".
All he needed now was for Moff to pick up that something was off-color here and bury him a hundred kilometers from Cerenkov and Rynstadt while the Qasamans figured out what was going on.
Grinning, he told an off-color joke about the sexual problems of certain neurotics, and finished on a more savage note.
He'd be out there picking the pockets of the other Gods and inscribing off-color jokes in the constellations.
Harold W» Smith did not approve of off-color jokes or misspending of a penny, much less political espionage.
It made him more pleasant to work with than he’d been during the less eventful leg of their flight—he hadn’t cracked a single off-color joke, or invented any new, annoying nicknames for anyone—but it also made him more of a concern.
What leaked from around the circumference of the crack between those blocks—a fleeting impression of blood-soaked fur was all the man permitted himself now—hadn't borne close examination, and Eichra Oren had been grateful for the low, off-colored light.
Did an off-color rice grain in three-year-old Kim Seong's Korean bowl fit into a problem?
He was faintly tired after the long tube-shunt from Central to Seatac Megalopolis, still he told an off-color joke about primitive reproduction to the gray-haired duty nurse.
He was faintly tired after the long tube-shunt from Central to Seatac Megalopolis, still he told an off-color joke about primitive reproduction to the gray-haired duty nurse.
Part of it came from his own success, part of it from the fact that Ryan respected straight talk, even if the language was occasionally off-color.
They love to eat and drink, play mumblety-peg with dim-witted quadrupeds, and tell off-color dwarf jokes.