fight off

verb

fought off; fighting off; fights off

: to defend oneself against (someone or something) by fighting or struggling : to avoid being harmed or overcome by (someone or something) by fighting or struggling

They fought off the attack/attackers.

I'm trying to fight off a cold.

Examples of fight off in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

The captain of the plane was able to fight off the co-pilot long enough to unlock the cockpit door. — Matt Gutman, CBS News, 5 Oct. 2026

The suspect was stopped after Machchhar managed to open the cockpit door, allowing passengers to get in fight off the suspect, and take back the controls, investigators said. — Clark Bentson, ABC News, 3 Oct. 2026

The Indian pilot who fought off a savage attack by his copilot and helped prevent an apparent hijack of a Flydubai plane heading to Israel with more than 170 people on board is being hailed as a hero. — Rhea Mogul, CNN Money, 1 Oct. 2026

According to the account of Netanyahu and other passengers, Machchhar, a father, tried to fight off his co-pilot before being critically wounded with a small knife. — Brady Knox, The Washington Examiner, 30 Sep. 2026

Rhymes for fight off

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