head off

verb

headed off; heading off; heads off

transitive verb

: to turn back or turn aside : block, prevent

head them off at the pass

attempts to head off the imminent crisis

intransitive verb

: to go to another place

See you later—I'm heading off to work.

Synonyms of head off

• prevent
• avert

Examples of head off in a Sentence

if we act quickly, we may still be able to head off disaster

Recent Examples on the Web

The percentage of high-school graduates heading off to college will continue to decline. —Jay Caspian Kang, New Yorker, 9 June 2026

Elsewhere in the interview, Lopez spoke about how her kids are heading off soon to college. —Hannah Sacks, PEOPLE, 9 June 2026

The alternate lane has become even more important as global oil markets are poised to head off a cliff in a matter of weeks, when crude reserves are expected to reach critically low levels. —Jason Ma, Fortune, 6 June 2026

In the wake of a city goal to build and preserve thousands of units worth of affordable housing to head off rising demand, large-scale affordable housing projects have increasingly benefitted from the weight of direct municipal support. —Matan Josephy, Idaho Statesman, 4 June 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1825, in the meaning defined at transitive sense

Rhymes for head off

• ashraf
• checkoff
• cutoff
• falloff
• handoff
• kickoff
• layoff
• liftoff
• markoff
• markov
• payoff
• playoff