11 Phrasal Verbs with OFF

11 Phrasal Verbs with OFF

Hello English learners. Welcome to a new lesson. Today, we will look at 11 phrasal verbs with off.

As you may know, phrasal verbs consist of a verb and one or two particles. An example of a phrasal verb is “call off” which means to cancel. For example: They called off the party because of the weather.

Meanings of some phrasal verbs are obvious, for example, “eat out”. We like to eat out means that we like to eat in a restaurant or cafe. On the other hand, the meanings of some others are not so obvious, so they can be a bit tricky to memorize, such as “put on with”, which means tolerate. For example: How do you put on with your neighbours? If you didn’t know its meaning, you could spend all day thinking about it.

Phrasal verbs with OFF

Let’s look at some more or less common phrasal verbs using the preposition off. Here is the list:

1. Call off
2. Cut off
3. Drop off
4. Fall off
5. Fight off
6. Give off
7. Go off
8. Pay off
9. Put off
10. Switch off
11. Turn off

The English teachers at My Lingua Academy are happy to help you improve your English. You can attend our online individual and group private lessons or learn English for free with our blog posts where you will find loads of grammar and vocabulary lessons, as well as exercises and quizzes. 

Call off

To call off something means to cancel it.

• After they fulfilled their requests, the strikers decided to call off the strike.
• The flight has been called off because of the weather.

Phrasal verbs with OFF

Cut off

To cut someone off means to interrupt them while speaking.

• Mark cut Mildred off in the middle of her speech and offered to make her a cup of tea.
• They were rudely cut off in the middle of the conversation.

It also means to stop the supplies.

• The electricity supply was cut off because they hadn’t paid the bills for months.
• They cut off food aid so the refugees were in a very bad situation.

Drop off

If you drop off, you begin to sleep.

• Sandra dropped off while she was watching TV.
• Martin was very tired so he kept dropping off at the bus.

If you drop someone off, you take them with your car and drive them to a place.

• I will drop your children off on my way to work.
• Will you drop me off at the train station? My car’s broken down.

Phrasal verbs with OFF

Fall off

If something is falling off, it is decreasing in quantity or quality.

• The number of people infected by the Coronavirus has fallen off significantly.
• The species of bear in this forest is falling off in number every year.

Also, if a part of something is separating from its main part, we say that it is falling off.

• The handle on the cupboard is falling off. Can you fix it?

Fight off

If you fight off, you resist an illness by fighting against it.

• Simon tried to fight off the cold by drinking tea.
• Have you heard that they’ve discovered a drug to fight off Alzheimer’s disease?

It also means to stop someone from doing something to you.

• The popular singer had to fight off the crowd to get to the stage.

Give off

The phrasal verb is usually related to releasing something such as smell, light, sound, heat, etc.

• The cake gave off a heavy vanilla smell.
• The light bulb gave off a diffused light.
• The small radio was giving off a sound of melancholic music.
• These radiators don’t give off enough heat.

Phrasal verbs with OFF

Go off

The phrasal verb go off has a few meanings. One of them is to leave a place

• Paula went off in a hurry because she was late.
• What time do you usually go off your duty?

It also means to explode.

• The bomb was timed to go off at midnight.
• The exploding device went off injuring two people.

When the alarm clock starts ringing, we say that it goes off.

• The alarm clock went off and Susana woke up.

Pay off

When you work on something and you get successful you can say that your work paid off.

• Helen has finally graduated. She’s a doctor now and all her hard work paid off.
• The police tactic paid off and they caught the bank robbers.

Phrasal verbs with OFF

When you give the workers the money they earned and tell them you do not need them any more, you pay them off.

• The company paid off over a hundred workers in the past year.

Put off

To put something off means to cancel or delay it for some later time.

• The wedding will be put off because the bride changed her mind.
• The meeting was put off because of the chairman’s illness.

It also means to make someone dislike you.

• Monica is a nice person but she had a drinking problem and it was putting people off.
• It puts Michael off when you change TV channels.

Phrasal verbs with OFF

Switch off

To switch something off means to turn off a machine.

• Vivienne switched off the TV and went to bed.
• The doorbell was switched off so they didn’t hear when their guests arrived.

It also means to relax.

• Bob closed his eyes and switched off for a moment.

Turn off

To turn off means to leave the road you are travelling on and travel on another one.

• Go another 200 meters and turn off at the traffic light.

Phrasal verbs with OFF

If you turn someone off, you make them lose interest in something.

• Robert’s rude remark turned his client off so she decided not to do business with him.

If you really want to learn English but don’t know how to do it and where to start, don’t hesitate to contact us. Book an online English lesson with one of our certified and experienced English teachers and take a test and consultation for only 1 euro!