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What is "well-off"

Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
well-off
adjective
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADVERB
less
▪ The tax cuts were targeted at the less well-off.
▪ But need she be less well-off?
▪ They also said less well-off consumers without cars are losing as superstores move out of town.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ Stella's family is well-off.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ Children from well-off families would rather play computer games than go outside.
▪ Female illiteracy, even in the well-off classes, is one of the characteristics of the decadence that led to colonization.
▪ He guessed that, if anything, he must look like an under-steward employed in a moderately well-off family.
▪ If so, this would compound the effect on housing of its tax rises for the well-off.
▪ Meanwhile, well-off laymen kept clergy in virtual peonage.
▪ One suspects, however, that the active wear will be embraced by comfortable well-off commuters in 4x4s.
▪ The well-off westerners who came here for enlightenment, what did they see?
▪ Tobacco profits jumped 16%, thanks to the growth in smoking in less well-off parts of the world.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
well-off

1733, "comfortable," from well (adv.) + off. Meaning "prosperous, not poor" is recorded from 1849.

Wiktionary
well-off

a. (alternative spelling of well off English)

WordNet
well-off

  1. adj. in fortunate circumstances financially; moderately rich; "they were comfortable or even wealthy by some standards"; "easy living"; "a prosperous family"; "his family is well-situated financially"; "well-to-do members of the community" [syn: comfortable, easy, prosperous, well-fixed, well-heeled, well-situated, well-to-do]

  2. fortunately situated; "doesn't know when he's well-off"

Usage examples of "well-off".

And grown men, young and old, well-off and not so well-off, still devoted a substantial portion of their free time and discretionary income to the pursuit.

Any man who is rich or well-off, in other words, every man who is likely to be taxed, imprisoned or guillotined, gladly consents "to compound," to redeem himself and those who belong to him.

There was an elderly, obviously well-off couple, and opposite them a slick-haired, smooth-shaved, jowly, overweight, middle-aged young man in a tailor-made Oxford gray business suit.

Sends half his pay to mother and father for their support but they are moderately well-off and mother puts it in trust account for him: mother does same with money sent by his very wealthy sister Hightee Heller the Homeview star.