as in turning back
to drive back
the defense managed to beat off those offensive players who were taking shots at the goalie
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Recent Examples of beating off
The dogs had driven the woman into the surf before a tourist came to her rescue, beating off the dingoes.
—
CBS News, 28 Jan. 2026
CBS News, 28 Jan. 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for beating off
Verb
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The semifinals at the Ford Center in Frisco are wrapping up, and the day delivered everything from near‑upsets to a Grand Slam champion turning back the clock.—
J.D. Miles,
CBS News,
14 Feb. 2026
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The rise of artificial intelligence is inevitable, and there is no turning back.—
Eleanor Dearman,
Fort Worth Star-Telegram,
14 Feb. 2026
Verb
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The individual, their face covered in a ski mask, appears to fiddle with the camera with a gloved hand before turning away to look for something to obscure the lens.—
Anna Kaufman,
USA Today,
11 Feb. 2026
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But these restrictions aren’t new, and even experts intimately familiar with GRFP don’t understand why NSF is currently turning away students.—
Jonathan Wosen,
STAT,
11 Feb. 2026
Verb
-
Some flowers, like marigolds and nasturtiums, have proven pest-repelling abilities.—
Brandee Gruener,
Southern Living,
16 Feb. 2026
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Almost all companions on this list use rosemary for its strong scent as a natural deterrent, but onions come with a repelling smell of their own.—
Ashlyn Needham,
The Spruce,
16 Feb. 2026
Verb
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While there are dismemberments and other bits of gruesome violence to be found in the film, Badlands is largely aimed at endearing its audience rather than repulsing them.—
Richard Lawson,
HollywoodReporter,
4 Nov. 2025
Verb
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The man was arrested and was being held in county jail in lieu of $100,000 bail on suspicion of robbery and resisting an officer, according to online jail records.—
Karen Kucher,
San Diego Union-Tribune,
17 Feb. 2026
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The opposite happens, and the metal strengthens, resisting the deformation.—
Mrigakshi Dixit,
Interesting Engineering,
16 Feb. 2026
Verb
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Gibney illustrates that state of waiting, of staving off what at that time appears to be the inevitable, with the famous sequence from Ingmar Bergman’s The Seventh Seal, in which Max von Sydow’s medieval knight plays chess with Death on a desolate beach.—
David Rooney,
HollywoodReporter,
25 Jan. 2026
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Snead and McVay renewed the contract terms with Stafford in late February, staving off would-be suitors in the Giants, Raiders and Steelers, and tweaked the roster some by adding run-stopping defensive tackle Poona Ford and All-Pro receiver Davante Adams.—
Jourdan Rodrigue,
New York Times,
24 Jan. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Beating off.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/beating%20off. Accessed 19 Feb. 2026.
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