meaning of "write off"

[Laurah]

English Language Proficiency Tests, Advanced Level

ESL/EFL Test #557 "English Slang Idioms (195)", question 1

"We are going to have to write off our new cellular phone as a ......... loss. We believed that customers would be willing to pay for a phone that was also a hand-warmer but we were wrong. We had an effective marketing campaign but the price of this extra feature is inhibitive and the hand-warming function depletes the phone's batteries at an alarming rate, rendering the phone dead after a mere five minutes," Bill told management.

(a) profit
(b) dead
(c) hopeless
(d) sure

English Language Proficiency Tests, Advanced Level

ESL/EFL Test #557 "English Slang Idioms (195)", answer 1

"We are going to have to write off our new cellular phone as a dead loss. We believed that customers would be willing to pay for a phone that was also a hand-warmer but we were wrong. We had an effective marketing campaign but the price of this extra feature is inhibitive and the hand-warming function depletes the phone's batteries at an alarming rate, rendering the phone dead after a mere five minutes," Bill told management.

Correct answer: (b) dead
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I don't understand the meaning of "write off" would you mind helping me?

Laurah

[Linda]

Hello Laurah,
A common write-off relates to accounts that show that a company has lost money (customers didn't pay their bills etc.) In other words, to consider an amount as an expense or a loss.
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