pair off

phrasal verb

paired off; pairing off; pairs off

1

: to join together in a romantic relationship

He hated being single while his friends were pairing off and having kids.

2

: to join or to cause others to join to form a group of two

People paired off for the next dance.

She paired the students off.

Examples of pair off in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Circumstances change — people pair off, have children, choose lives that seem at odds with the dreams of youth. —Mary McNamara, Los Angeles Times, 28 Mar. 2024

On last week’s episode (March 22), the top six contestants were paired off into duos and asked to makeover gender-neutral bathrooms for an HGTV-style renovation comedy challenge. —Stephen Daw, Billboard, 26 Mar. 2024

The latest season of Bachelor in Paradise saw Russell and Jones paired off as a couple by the second episode. —Shania Russell, EW.com, 11 Dec. 2023

The concerts settled into a durable format years ago, with the first half featuring each guitarist playing two or three tunes solo, and the second half pairing off players in different combinations (with an all-hands-on-deck finale). —Andrew Gilbert, The Mercury News, 22 Feb. 2024

He was given a column, and paired off against the venerable Russell Kirk, who was always right but, off at the end of his long run, not always engagingly so. —Neal B. Freeman, National Review, 20 Feb. 2024

First light Just before sunrise, Dmytro’s battalion approached a shallow sandbar and paired off in twos. —Serhii Korolchuk, Washington Post, 4 Jan. 2024

Jason Isaacs Isaacs was announced alongside three of the ladies above, which might mean he’ll be paired off with one of them. —Vulture, 17 Jan. 2024

Each new term of a Somos-k sequence is defined by pairing off previous terms, multiplying each pair together, adding up the pairs, and then dividing by the term k positions back in the sequence. —Alex Stone, Quanta Magazine, 16 Nov. 2023