Wiktionary

go off

See also: go-off

English edit

Pronunciation edit

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Verb edit

go off (third-person singular simple present goes off, present participle going off, simple past went off, past participle gone off)

  1. (intransitive) To explode.
    The bomb went off right after the president left his office.
  2. (intransitive) To fire, especially accidentally.
    The gun went off during their struggle.
  3. (intransitive, figurative) To explode metaphorically; to become very angry.
    It all went off when the opposing teams' fans met at the railway station.
    When the boss came to know about the scheme, he went off, shouting and throwing everything away.
  4. (intransitive) To begin clanging or making noise.
    The alarm will go off at six a.m.
    Just after he spotted the first plane on the horizon, sirens started to go off around the city.
  5. (intransitive) To stop operating; to switch off.
    We were watching TV when suddenly the power went off.
  7. (intransitive) To depart; to leave.
    Having sated her appetite, she went off in search of a place to sleep.
    I don't know where he's going—he went off without a word.
    • 1995, Nick Hornby, High Fidelity, London: Victor Gollancz, →ISBN, page 25:
      I was intimidated by the other men on her design course, and became convinced that she was going to go off with one of them. She went off with one of them.
  8. (intransitive, UK, Australia) To putrefy or become inedible, or to become unusable in any way.
    Synonyms: go sour, spoil
    Bugger—the milk's gone off already!
    • 1987 September 3, Unpalatable Treatment, New Scientist, page 20,
      But to cast out a technique that could not only reduce the incidence of food poisoning but could also allow us to move away from another bete noire of the “technophobes” — chemical treatment to prevent stored grain from going off— is daft
    • 2005, Neil Perry, The Food I Love‎[1], page 13:
      Don′t expect to store fragile food like fish, poultry and meat in the refrigerator at home for a long period of time, as it will go off quickly.
    • 2005, Nancy Abeiderrahmane, “Modern Dairy Products from Traditional Camel Herding: An Experience in Mauritania”, in Bernard Faye, Palmated Esenov, editors, Desertification Combat And Food Safety: The Added Value Of Camel Producers, page 156:
      Although there is a popular myth about camel milk ‘never going off’, experience shows that pasteurised packaged camel milk does not keep any better than its cow equivalent, and seems to lose its flavour faster.
  9. (transitive) To like less.
    Ever since falling off her bike, she's gone off cycling to work.
    We needed a vet visit because some of the cattle had gone off their feed.
  10. (intransitive, chiefly UK, of epoxy resins) To cure; to set.
    I've got to get the panels aligned quickly now because the epoxy resin will go off within 20 minutes or so.
  11. (intransitive) To pass off; to take place; to be accomplished.
    The party went off very well.
  12. (slang) To ejaculate.
    Synonyms: ejaculate, cum
  13. (LGBT, slang) Synonym of serve (“present an attractive personal appearance”)
  14. (transitive) To follow or extrapolate from something; to judge by.
    Going off the interview alone, she seemed like the perfect employee.
    • 8 October, 2020, Paul Oswell, Business Insider:
      To see a room rate well under $200 is a rarity…. The occupancy rate during my stay seemed quite low, going off what I was able to see, with not many guests checking in or out and no crowds in the public spaces, and so social distancing wasn't an issue.

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