come off

verb

came off; come off; coming off; comes off

intransitive verb

1

a

: to acquit oneself : fare

came off well in the contest

b

: appear, seem

2

: succeed

His plans to start a business never came off.

3

: happen, occur

4

US, informal

—used in phrases like where do you come off? to express anger or annoyance at what someone has said or done

Marie was bent over the table now, reading, her piping girlish voice hot with indignation. "Where does she come off, anyway?"

—T. Coraghessan Boyle

transitive verb

1

: to have recently completed or recovered from

coming off a good year

2

: to have recently stopped using (an illegal drug)

an addict who is coming off heroin

Synonyms of come off

• happen
• be
• come
• come to pass
• occur
• come down

Examples of come off in a Sentence

couldn't believe that the wedding would actually come off—they've been “just dating” for years

the attempted revival of the city's downtown never really came off, and even more stores eventually closed

Recent Examples on the Web

Rutter, more effective as a No 10, came off the bench for Welbeck in the 75th minute at Tottenham and equalised with a fine finish in the 95th minute, his first goal since January. —Andy Naylor, New York Times, 21 Apr. 2026

Lenyn Sosa put Toronto ahead with a sacrifice fly in the sixth, and Nathan Lukes knocked in two late insurance runs after coming off the bench. —ABC News, 21 Apr. 2026

The team is mercifully moving on from penalty machine Jawaan Taylor, and the team has to protect Mahomes (who is coming off a torn ACL). —Dan Zaksheske, FOXNews.com, 21 Apr. 2026

Gilz is a German/Russian actor who is coming off his biggest break stateside in Ponies, the eight-part Cold War thriller series from Peacock. —Matt Grobar, Deadline, 21 Apr. 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1590, in the meaning defined at intransitive sense 1a

Rhymes for come off

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