live off

verb

lived off; living off; lives off

transitive verb

: to use (something or someone) as the main source of what one needs to survive (such as money or food)

… the indigenous … people, who have inhabited the rain forest of Irian Jaya, living off the land, for thousands of years.

—Eyal Press

… the fish goes into a kind of hibernation, living off its reserves of fat …

—Mark Carwardine

… she is one of the few Iditarod competitors who have turned professional, living off race winnings.

—National Wildlife

… a growing subculture of people who have reduced their spending habits and live off consumer waste.

—Erika Hayasaki

Max lives off his father …

—Harold Beaver

Examples of live off in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

How people do their jobs will change, but Huang doesn’t see AI creating mass unemployment or the need for humans to live off a universal high income. —Emma Burleigh, Fortune, 23 Oct. 2025

With plans to establish permanent outposts on the Moon and send missions to Mars, food starts to take on a much more serious place in the scheme of things – even more so than on the ISS because there's a huge incentive to live off the land. —David Szondy october 19, New Atlas, 19 Oct. 2025

TCUs also generally have minimal overhead costs, since most students live off-campus and only a handful of these colleges and universities offer on-campus housing. —Cynthia Lindquist, The Conversation, 7 Oct. 2025

Michael Heaton, 76, takes care of his 31-year-old son, who has autism; the two live off Heaton’s Social Security and his son’s disability payments. —ProPublica, 3 Oct. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1609, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for live off

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