start off

phrasal verb

started off; starting off; starts off

1

: to start or cause (something) to start in a specified way

He started off by introducing himself.

She started off (her run) at a slow jog.

The performance started off badly.

—often + with

I started off my speech with a joke.

We started off the meal with shrimp cocktails.

The team started the season off with a 10-game winning streak.

2

: to have a specified quality, identity, job, etc., at the start

She started off as a sales assistant but is now the marketing director.

3

: to begin an important period in one's life or career

The house is perfect for a couple just starting off.

4

: to begin to move toward a particular place or in a particular direction

She ate breakfast before starting off for work.

5

: to cause (someone) to begin doing a particular activity or action

He started his daughter off on the piano.

The game-show host started her off with some easy questions.

Examples of start off in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Those generally start off with more equity exposure early on and then become more conservative over time as the target date for tapping the money approaches. —Jessica Dickler,kate Dore, Cfp®, Ea, CNBC, 21 Feb. 2026

The old TikTak machine will be full bluegrass on my channel, for sure, when this tour starts off. —Chris Willman, Variety, 20 Feb. 2026

Jones starts off the year with a tough challenge in its preseason Kickoff Classic game, traveling to Miami Central a week before opening the regular season in California. —Chris Hays, The Orlando Sentinel, 20 Feb. 2026

An awkward moment between OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei at an AI Summit Thursday captured the increasingly icy relations between two rival tech leaders who started off as colleagues. —Marco Quiroz-Gutierrez, Fortune, 19 Feb. 2026

Rhymes for start off

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