why don't you just use "disagreeable"? LEO has lots of nice suggestions for that

watching him eat with his mouth open is off-putting (i.e. is putting me off my food).
who is being put off what in your example with the rain and missing raincoat? Is off-putting really the right word there?
(I really would like to know, as it strikes me as odd, but who am I to judge...)

'Es macht keinen großen Spaß/es ist nicht sehr angenehm, ohne Anorack in den Regen hinauszugehen/im Regen umherzulaufen.'

@Richard: repellent

nicht einladend

alles eher als einladend

@noli: alles andere als einladend.
I repeat my question: is off-putting the right word in English?

Der *denglische* Begriff, der (leider) zumindest in meiner Gegend sehr häufig verwendet wird in solchen und ähnlichen Kontexten, lautet 'abtörnend'.

Im Regen draußen ohne Regenkleidung und Schirm herumlaufen zu müssen, ist ziemlich abtörnend.

yes tanja - it can be said - not great but not wrong

<talk to me and i tell you who you are...>

"off-putting" sounds slightly "off" to me too, tanja1.

Yes, as a native English speaker this word is used in the U.S. It might be thought of as a little bit old-fashioned or even dialetical. We used the term in everyday speech at home. It does not mean being "put off" one's food. It is usually used in the context of being slightly disagreeable.

Richard, I didn't mean that "one's food" was tacitly understood and part of "being put off". That was an example to illustrate my point - namely that I have only seen / heard "off-putting" in the sense of (mildly) disgusting, not disagreeable. Which is why it jarred when I read it in the context of going out in bad weather.
I am mainly influenced by BE, if that's any help.

I am also a native English speaker in the U.S. and have never heard this word used. One can be "put off" by something, but you CANNOT say that something is "off-putting."

ok, here's what M-W has to say about it:
off-putting
One entry found for off-putting.
 
Main Entry: off-put·ting
Pronunciation: -"pu-ti[ng]
Function: adjective
: that puts one off : REPELLENT, DISCONCERTING <an off-putting attitude>
- off-put·ting·ly /-lE/ adverb

I'd forgotten about disconcerting, but now that I think about it, that's another possible meaning I have heard off-putting being used with.

Yes it is an exceptable English word. It can mean disheartening.

Hinweis: "Anorak" ohne "cK"

NYT-article:

By ALESSANDRA STANLEY
Published: September 23, 2007

"What do you watch?”

"It is no longer a lazy way to redirect a boring conversation. Questions about viewing preferences have become fraught; the topic is as intimate, revealing and potentially off-putting as discussing how much money you make."

Hopefully this example is of any help.

"Off-putting" is indeed a commonly used word in British English, see and hear it all the time in London.

It´s often used in a sexual context, similar to the German "abtörnend" (as mentioned by someone before) or even "ekelhaft" (disgusting).

"Trying to answer a question with Hermione next to him, bobbing up and down on the balls of her feet with her hand in the air, was very off-putting, but Harry had a go."
aus: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Chapter: The Boggart in the Wardrobe

ähnlich wie abtörnend, bloß nicht im sexuellen Sinn. Jedoch nicht im Sinne von 'repellent'

From a BE native speaker and translator:

The last (Harry Potter) example is a good example of how this word is used. Here, if something is off-putting, it is distracting (in a bad way) or makes it more difficult to do something, or it makes something less appealing to do.

The other main context is to do with food; a worm in your salad would definitely be off-putting, although any self-respecting youngster would probably shout "gross"!

As for the sexual context, you would refer to something being a "turn-off" rather than being "off-putting".