"Either you cry off on our engagement or I will."
If you wish me to cry off, I will be only too happy to do so.
"I offered to cry off, and he made no particular objection to my doing so."
Well, suppose we call that cried off, and begin as before?
It takes a great deal of courage to cry off.
Perhaps it would be best to cry off now, to seek other, less complicated game.
If they'd wanted to cry off, they could have done.
My parents have an evening engagement, but I cried off.
I cannot cry off now, but it is a bore.
Perhaps, he thought, the time had come to end it; to just cry off.