fight off

phrasal verb

fought off; fighting off; fights off

: to defend oneself against (someone or something) by fighting or struggling : to avoid being harmed or overcome by (someone or something) by fighting or struggling

They fought off the attack/attackers.

I'm trying to fight off a cold.

Examples of fight off in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Ballard also agreed that a victim fighting off her attacker and scratching him would likely have the attacker’s DNA under her fingernails. —Stepheny Price, FOXNews.com, 30 Jan. 2026

Momoa’s irresponsible, endlessly chatty Jonny is first seen being dumped by his long-suffering girlfriend Valentina (Morena Baccarin) and is the kind of guy who quaffs a beer even while fighting off a gang of murderous yakuza. —Frank Scheck, HollywoodReporter, 26 Jan. 2026

Punk fought off Styles from the top rope and hit a flying elbow for a two count. —Alfred Konuwa, Forbes.com, 26 Jan. 2026

In the first season of action thriller A Shop For Killers, Kim Hye-jun starred as Jeong Ji-an, a college student who must fight off a bevy of highly skilled assassins while trying to get to the bottom of her uncle’s death. —Kayti Burt, Time, 14 Jan. 2026

Rhymes for fight off

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