GOING OFF Synonyms: 165 Similar and Opposite Words

going off

verb

present participle of go off

as in exploding

to break open or into pieces usually because of internal pressure specialists were able to deactivate the bomb before it went off

Synonyms & Similar Words

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms

as in progressing

to move forward along a course the wedding went off without so much as a single glitch

Synonyms & Similar Words

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

as in departing

to leave a place often for another don't go off without telling us where we can find you

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 going off Next came Wild Horse Nine’s John Malkovich, who won the Best Actor prize at Venice for his performance as a CIA assassin going off the rails. — Nate Jones, Vulture, 9 Oct. 2026 Amid the confusion of going off course to get the injured girl to safety and then trying to return to the race, Villarreal got sidetracked. — Steve Millar, Chicago Tribune, 8 Oct. 2026 Equipment is becoming more accessible, but just horror inherently has always been a more accessible genre than something like going off to make a period drama that’s expensive. — William Earl, Variety, 28 Sep. 2026 Most bears stay with their mothers for two to three summers before going off on their own. — Popular Science Team, Popular Science, 25 Sep. 2026 Single-Node Contention Under Concurrent Agent Queries A distributed, scale-out architecture spreads those concurrent operations across many nodes, so adding agents means adding capacity rather than going off a cliff. — Gopi Duddi, Forbes.com, 4 Sep. 2026 Tadej Pogačar continued his impressive run at the Spanish Vuelta on Thursday, winning the sixth stage after going off track and nearly crashing on a quick descent. — ABC News, 27 Aug. 2026 The robbery was meticulously planned by the thieves; prior to the alarms going off at the museum, an alarm had gone off at the city’s sports center that authorities are calling suspicious. — Hikmat Mohammed, ARTnews.com, 27 Aug. 2026 If time expires, the player going off must still leave the field. — Graham Scott, New York Times, 20 Aug. 2026

Recent Examples of Synonyms for going off

Verb

The series’ second season is invigorating, too, but in a different way, like an icy wind finding its way under your scarf, or a snowball exploding into a puff of powder on your face.

— Roxana Hadadi, Vulture, 5 Nov. 2026
It was rebroadcast around the country, and the exploding whale became a kind of mascot for Florence and a point of pride for many of its residents.

— The New Yorker, New Yorker, 5 Nov. 2026

Definition of exploding

Verb

The company said the Versace integration is progressing on track, ahead of the creative debut of Pieter Mulier in 2027.

— Luisa Zargani, Footwear News, 22 Oct. 2026
Port Eastside’s partners are progressing toward a winter groundbreaking for work on the $90 million reuse of 111 Founders Plaza into a 19-story upscale apartment complex.

— Don Stacom, Hartford Courant, 22 Oct. 2026

Definition of progressing

Verb

At Prague's Vaclav Havel Airport, spokesperson Denisa Hejtmánková said a total of nine flights were threatened, including arriving flights from Denmark, Spain and Britain, and departing flights to the Netherlands, Cyprus, Romania, Italy and Britain.

— ABC News, ABC News, 6 Nov. 2026
Departing from Dallas In Porter’s view, departing is the most stressful part of air travel.

— Lauren Harano, Condé Nast Traveler, 6 Nov. 2026

Definition of departing

Verb

Its construction required detonating explosives in the national monument, blasting apart an area called Monument Hill and outraging tribal leaders.

— Ryan Devereaux, ProPublica, 2 Nov. 2026
Akhtar the author, though, is conducting a stealthy psyop aimed at detonating the certainties of combatants on both sides.

— Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 1 Oct. 2026

Definition of detonating

Verb

If the idea of doing surgery on a raw turkey gives you a stress rash, ask your butcher to do it—even at the supermarket.

— Andy Baraghani, Bon Appetit Magazine, 5 Nov. 2026
Even while every utopia contains the seeds of its opposite, so too does any dystopia provide, even briefly or contingently, intimations of a different way of doing things.

— Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 5 Nov. 2026

Definition of doing

Verb

Stanichi is exiting Mattel at a transformative moment for the toy and entertainment company as well (though conversations about this move have been said to be months in the making).

— Alex Weprin, HollywoodReporter, 5 Nov. 2026
At the same time, insurers are increasing premiums and, in some cases, exiting high-risk markets altogether, leaving some homeowners more exposed.

— Mary Cunningham, CBS News, 4 Nov. 2026

Definition of exiting

Verb

The professional and business services sector, as the agency classifies it, gained 70,000 jobs, blowing past its average monthly gain of 15,000 over the past year.

— Steve Kopack, NBC news, 6 Nov. 2026
Electric fireplaces produce heat by blowing air over heated coils or with infrared light and can be used with or without the heating function engaged.

— BestReviews, Chicago Tribune, 6 Nov. 2026