as in to repel
to drive back
the defense managed to beat off those offensive players who were taking shots at the goalie
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Recent Examples of beat off
The dogs had driven the woman into the surf before a tourist came to her rescue, beating off the dingoes.
—
CBS News, 20 Jan. 2026
On this play, Tegra Tshabola got beat off the ball, forcing Donaldson to take a different hole before running into a defender who center Carson Hinzman was on until the hole shifted.
—Cameron Teague Robinson, New York Times, 15 Sep. 2025
Chip Somodevilla/Pool Photo via AP What To Know Obama beat off stiff competition from the likes of David Attenborough and Tom Hanks to win the Outstanding Narrator prize for his narration of the five-part Netflix series Our Oceans, which examines marine life across the world's oceans.
—Daniel Orton, MSNBC Newsweek, 8 Sep. 2025
In 2024, it was given to Netflix France series Class Act, which beat off competition from huge hits like The Bear, Beef and Succession.
—Max Goldbart, Deadline, 5 Aug. 2025
Breathing problems which sent my heart beat off the charts.
—David Velasco, Harpers Magazine, 18 Dec. 2023
CBS News, 20 Jan. 2026
On this play, Tegra Tshabola got beat off the ball, forcing Donaldson to take a different hole before running into a defender who center Carson Hinzman was on until the hole shifted.
—Cameron Teague Robinson, New York Times, 15 Sep. 2025
Chip Somodevilla/Pool Photo via AP What To Know Obama beat off stiff competition from the likes of David Attenborough and Tom Hanks to win the Outstanding Narrator prize for his narration of the five-part Netflix series Our Oceans, which examines marine life across the world's oceans.
—Daniel Orton, MSNBC Newsweek, 8 Sep. 2025
In 2024, it was given to Netflix France series Class Act, which beat off competition from huge hits like The Bear, Beef and Succession.
—Max Goldbart, Deadline, 5 Aug. 2025
Breathing problems which sent my heart beat off the charts.
—David Velasco, Harpers Magazine, 18 Dec. 2023
Recent Examples of Synonyms for beat off
Verb
-
Inviting in such resolute saboteurs, these institutions repel many in their core audience.—
Sean Williams,
Harpers Magazine,
27 Jan. 2026
-
In ancient China, Fa Mulan (Ming-Na Wen) takes her ailing father’s place as a conscript by disguising herself as a man to help repel the invading Huns.—
David Faris,
TheWeek,
27 Jan. 2026
Verb
-
Some pets cannot resist chewing on houseplants.—
Brandee Gruener,
Southern Living,
22 Jan. 2026
-
Institutions, subcultures and artists have always found ways to resist homogenization.—
Ahmed Elgammal,
Fortune,
22 Jan. 2026
Verb
-
Adi turned away as the needle found its vein, scanning the other man for a reaction but finding none.—
Jonathan Miles,
Harpers Magazine,
27 Jan. 2026
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Multiple videos also show a federal agent in a gray jacket reaching into the scuffle empty-handed and emerging with a gun in his right hand, turning away from the man when the first shot is fired, then running across the street as more shots are fired.—
Nicole Sganga,
CBS News,
27 Jan. 2026
Verb
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Monday's situation at the airport was much calmer, despite below-freezing temperatures that caused the weekend's rainfall to turn back into ice.—
Dan Raby,
CBS News,
26 Jan. 2026
-
Morris shook Crockett’s hand before turning back down the sidewalk.—
Kate Armanini,
Chicago Tribune,
26 Jan. 2026
Verb
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For reasons that are quite possibly too unbearable to contemplate, a large group of American voters was not repulsed by such slander—they were actually aroused by it—and our politics have not been the same.—
Jeffrey Goldberg,
The Atlantic,
6 Jan. 2026
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Nicole is the kind of wife who moves out of her father’s home into her husband’s home, and who has been taught to be repulsed by the mushroom spores covering her body, just like all the women in their community.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
2 Jan. 2026
Verb
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Gibney illustrates that state of waiting, of staving off what at that time appears to be the inevitable, with the famous sequence from Ingmar Bergman’s The Seventh Seal, in which Max von Sydow’s medieval knight plays chess with Death on a desolate beach.—
David Rooney,
HollywoodReporter,
25 Jan. 2026
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The 76ers had pulled within two late until Anunoby and Landry Shamet followed with consecutive 3s that helped the Knicks stave off the late-game collapse.—
CBS News,
CBS News,
24 Jan. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Beat off.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/beat%20off. Accessed 29 Jan. 2026.
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