as in to prevent
to keep from happening by taking action in advance
if we act quickly, we may still be able to head off disaster
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Recent Examples of head off
The singer was known at the time for things like biting a head off a dead bat on stage and urinating on The Alamo.
—
Brayden Garcia
july 22, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 22 July 2025
Osbourne's outrageous behavior became legend—biting the heads off a dove and a bat, snorting ants, and urinating on the Alamo while wearing his wife's dress.
—Amanda Castro
gabe Whisnant
anna Commander
shane Croucher, MSNBC Newsweek, 22 July 2025
Prior to the March 5, 2002, launch of MTV’s The Osbournes, Ozzy Osbourne would have been considered more likely to bite the head off of that canary.
—Daniel Fienberg, HollywoodReporter, 22 July 2025
Snelling has said investigators were pulling video surveillance footage from the area, asking the public for tips on who is to blame, and working to head off any retaliation.
—Sam Charles, Chicago Tribune, 9 July 2025
See All Example Sentences for head off
Brayden Garcia
july 22, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 22 July 2025
Osbourne's outrageous behavior became legend—biting the heads off a dove and a bat, snorting ants, and urinating on the Alamo while wearing his wife's dress.
—Amanda Castro
gabe Whisnant
anna Commander
shane Croucher, MSNBC Newsweek, 22 July 2025
Prior to the March 5, 2002, launch of MTV’s The Osbournes, Ozzy Osbourne would have been considered more likely to bite the head off of that canary.
—Daniel Fienberg, HollywoodReporter, 22 July 2025
Snelling has said investigators were pulling video surveillance footage from the area, asking the public for tips on who is to blame, and working to head off any retaliation.
—Sam Charles, Chicago Tribune, 9 July 2025
See All Example Sentences for head off
Recent Examples of Synonyms for head off
Verb
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Until now, there was no centralized system in place to prevent double billing, which enabled overpayments to go unnoticed.—
Jasmine Laws,
MSNBC Newsweek,
23 July 2025
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Engineering teams that achieve maximum resilience focus on designing recovery systems while investing in observability tools and automation for response capabilities rather than preventing all failures.—
Raju Dandigam,
Forbes.com,
23 July 2025
Verb
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Colorado hasn’t set up the grants to prove that a particular group’s efforts averted a certain number of injuries or deaths, but models that worked in other major cities should be helpful in the Denver area, said Dr. Ned Calonge, the state health department’s chief medical officer.—
Meg Wingerter,
Denver Post,
28 July 2025
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Understanding the gravity of a red flag warning and adhering to these precautions is paramount in averting wildfires during these perilous conditions.—
CA Weather Bot,
Sacbee.com,
24 July 2025
Cite this Entry
“Head off.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/head%20off. Accessed 5 Aug. 2025.
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