CALLED OFF Synonyms: 63 Similar and Opposite Words

called off

verb

past tense of call off

as in distracted

to draw the attention or mind to something else she was about to tell me the big news when her attention was called off by the arrival of another guest

Synonyms & Similar Words

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms

as in canceled

to put an end to (something planned or previously agreed to) called off the party after half of those invited couldn't make it

Synonyms & Similar Words

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Recent Examples of called off The couple called off their engagement in 2018, and Mozzi and Beatrice started dating that same year. — Lizzie Lanuza, StyleCaster, 14 Aug. 2026 Tennessee called off Carruthers' execution after a doctor failed to insert a backup intravenous line for about two hours, prompting Lee to grant Carruthers a one-year reprieve. — Amanda Lee Myers, USA Today, 13 Aug. 2026 Walter put a take-it-or-leave-it bid on the table so high — hundreds of millions above where the other bidders had been in the process — that former Dodgers owner Frank McCourt called off the auction and congratulated Walter. — Bill Shaikin, Los Angeles Times, 12 Aug. 2026 The longtime couple called off their engagement almost two years ago, according to Leigh Ann Caldwell, chief Washington correspondent at Puck. — Jessica Schladebeck, New York Daily News, 12 Aug. 2026 The execution was ultimately called off and Carruthers was given a one-year reprieve. — ABC News, 11 Aug. 2026 The update arrives just days after ZZ Top abruptly called off their show in Los Angeles. — Charisma Madarang, Rolling Stone, 11 Aug. 2026 The couple, who share two young daughters, called off their engagement in March, five weeks before their wedding in Italy. — Anna Lazarus Caplan, PEOPLE, 7 Aug. 2026 After two weeks, the zoo called off its rescue efforts, and the city (and some birders) cheered for the bird hero that overcame the odds. — Emma Gometz, Scientific American, 7 Aug. 2026

Recent Examples of Synonyms for called off

Verb

Debbie intervenes to defuse the tension, then gets distracted by the presence of her nemesis, Cha Cha.

— Louis Peitzman, Vulture, 13 Aug. 2026
Rodriguez said this can be caused by people being on their phone, distracted while driving.

— Amaia Gavica, Miami Herald, 6 Aug. 2026

Definition of distracted

Verb

There’s no need to theorize about what happened here because the obvious answer is Bret Easton Ellis signed off on the first two episodes and then abandoned the adaptation.

— Louis Peitzman, Vulture, 13 Aug. 2026
Back in 2014, a Ukraine defense ministry spokesperson told CNN that the Zaporizhzhia had been taken over and placed under the flag of the Russian naval fleet when its commander abandoned it.

— Issy Ronald, CNN Money, 13 Aug. 2026

Definition of abandoned

Verb

In June 2025, Gartner predicted more than 40% of agentic AI projects would be scrapped by the end of 2027.

— Jurin AI Contributor, Forbes.com, 18 Aug. 2026
One particularly stubborn bottleneck automatically sent recruits who wore glasses for screening for rare disqualifying eye conditions, a requirement officials eventually scrapped.

— Steven Beynon, ABC News, 17 Aug. 2026

Definition of scrapped

Verb

Police also rely on outdated databases from judicial authorities, which means individuals can end up in police custody for expired or revoked arrest warrants.

— Constance Malleret, Christian Science Monitor, 13 Aug. 2026
Under the Immigration and Nationality Act, citizenship may be revoked if it was illegally procured or obtained through the concealment of a material fact or willful misrepresentation.

— Walter Pavlo, Forbes.com, 12 Aug. 2026

Definition of revoked

Verb

Prices collapsed after 1986, domestic production was increasingly exempted, and the tax was generating almost nothing by the time it was repealed.

— Tibor Besedeš, The Conversation, 12 Aug. 2026
Parents in the Lower Merion School District in Pennsylvania drew national attention in June when yelling broke out at a board meeting after the district repealed a policy that had given families a choice to opt out.

— Stephanie Cook Broadhurst, Christian Science Monitor, 12 Aug. 2026