get off

phrasal verb

27 meanings of get off

1
leave vehiclephrasal verbtransitive or intransitive
To leave a vehicle, especially a bus, train or other public transportation, or to leave a road, highway or path one has been following.
We need to get off the highway at the next exit and find some gas.
When the train pulls into Union Station, most of the passengers get off.
Similarleave, exit
Oppositeboard
2
move from topphrasal verbtransitive or intransitive
To move so that one is no longer on top of something or someone.
Kids, get off the table before it breaks!
The dog was sprawled across my legs and refused to get off.
3
stop touchingphrasal verbintransitive
To stop touching someone or something, or to stop interfering with it physically.
"Get off! That hurts!" she shouted when her brother grabbed her arm.
The older boys kept shoving him in line until a teacher told them to get off.
4
end of dayphrasal verbtransitive or intransitive
To leave work or school when one's hours are over or when one has been given permission to go.
What time do you get off work on Fridays?
Nurses on the night shift get off at seven in the morning.
Similarleave, finish
5
light punishmentphrasal verbintransitive
To escape serious consequences, receiving only a light punishment, minor injuries or nothing at all for something one did or was accused of.
With a clean record, he got off with a warning and a small fine.
Considering how badly the car was crushed, the driver was lucky to get off with a few bruises.
Similarescape
Note
It seldom stands alone. A word for how mild the outcome was usually follows, lightly or, more casually, easy; or with names the small price paid: get off with a fine, a warning, a few bruises, even with one's life. When someone else arranges the escape, the verb turns causative, as in the lawyer got him off.
6
stop usingphrasal verbtransitive
To stop using a telephone, computer, or similar piece of equipment, as when ending a call.
I'll call you back as soon as I get off the phone with the bank.
Mom told the kids to get off the computer and start their homework.
7
phrasal verbtransitive
To move something so that it is no longer on top of something else.
Get your feet off the coffee table, please.
It took three of us to get the fallen branch off the roof of the car.
Similarremove
Note
Word order carries the meaning here. The thing being moved sits between the two words, as in get your feet off the table, and a pronoun has to sit there too: get it off. Put the noun straight after off, as in get off the table, and the sentence is about climbing down yourself, which is the plain moving-off meaning.
8
holiday timephrasal verbtransitive
To reserve, or to have, a period of time away from work as a vacation.
I'm hoping to get two weeks off in August to visit my parents.
He got the whole week off for his sister's wedding.
9
sexual thrillphrasal verbslangintransitive
To feel intense pleasure or excitement, especially sexual pleasure, and in particular to have an orgasm.
Some people seem to get off on frightening their friends with ghost stories.
Too much pressure in the bedroom can make it harder for some people to get off.
Note
With on, it names a thrill taken from something, often something others would find unkind or strange: people get off on frightening their friends with ghost stories, or on someone else's exhaustion. Without on, listeners usually hear the sexual meaning, so the small preposition matters more than it looks.
10
sexual thrillphrasal verbslangtransitive
To excite or arouse someone, especially sexually, so as to bring them to orgasm.
In the interview, the drummer admitted that nothing gets him off like a sold-out arena.
The advice column urged readers to tell their partners what it takes to get them off.
Note
It belongs to frank, private talk and sounds crude in most company. The person excited sits between the two words, as in get someone off or get yourself off. The same frame in a courtroom story means freeing someone from punishment, so the setting decides which is meant.

11
light punishmentphrasal verbtransitive
To help someone escape serious consequences, so that they receive only a mild punishment or none.
Her attorney managed to get her off with community service.
Everyone expected a prison sentence, but a clever defense got him off completely.
12
send on wayphrasal verbtransitive
To make or help someone ready to leave a place, especially to set out for somewhere else.
Once I get the kids off to school, I finally have time for coffee.
We got Grandma off to the airport with an hour to spare.
13
remove handsphrasal verbtransitive
To take or pull something away so that it is no longer touching or interfering with something else.
Get your hands off my bike!
After the hike we used salt to get the leeches off our ankles.
Similarremove
14
send (letter)phrasal verbtransitive
To send something out, often after writing it, such as a letter or message; to discharge it.
I want to get this report off to the client before lunch.
The guard got off a quick shot just before the buzzer sounded.
Similarsend, dispatch
15
dare (rudely)phrasal verbtransitive
To presume to behave in a rude, intrusive or overbearing way, as if one had the right to; used especially in indignant questions.
Where do you get off telling me how to raise my kids?
He has worked here for two weeks, so where does he get off criticizing everyone else's reports?
Note
It lives almost entirely in one indignant question: where do you get off telling me that? An -ing verb usually follows, and no answer is expected; the question tells someone they have no right to behave that way. It can also stand on its own as a retort: just where does he get off!
16
receive fromphrasal verbtransitive
To obtain or receive something from another person.
I'll get the spare key off my neighbor before she leaves for the weekend.
She got the recipe off her grandmother years ago and has never changed it.
17
brush asidephrasal verbintransitive
Used as a retort to show annoyance, or to brush aside what someone has said as not worth taking seriously.
"You could win the whole contest." "Oh, get off," she laughed, waving the idea away.
"Get off! I said I'd do the dishes later," she snapped when he brought it up again.
18
high (drugs)phrasal verbslangintransitive
To become high on a drug, starting to feel its effects.
In recovery, she admitted she had stopped using to get off and started using just to feel normal.
In group therapy, he described the first time he got off on heroin as the start of ten lost years.
Note
It comes from drug users' own talk and keeps that flavor: the first time I got off on cocaine. The drug follows on. Drop on and the meaning flips, because get off heroin is giving it up, so one small word separates getting high from quitting.
19
quit drugsphrasal verbslangtransitive
To quit using a drug that one has been taking.
It took him two years and three treatment programs to get off heroin.
Her doctor is helping her get off the painkillers slowly.
Similarquit
Note
The phrase is informal but not crude, and it covers prescribed medicines as well as street drugs: get off the heroin, get off the painkillers slowly. The article is optional, so get off heroin and get off the heroin both occur.
20
fall asleepphrasal verbUKintransitive
To fall asleep.
The baby's crying woke me at three, and I couldn't get off again till nearly five.
He was so tired after the match that he got off the moment his head touched the pillow.
Note
It pairs with getting a baby to sleep and shares its British home: where an American would say fall asleep or get back to sleep, a British speaker wakes at three and cannot get off again. Again is its frequent companion, since the phrase so often describes sleep that will not return after waking in the night.
21
fall asleepphrasal verbUKtransitive
To make someone fall asleep.
It took us an hour of rocking to get the baby off last night.
A warm bath and a story usually get the twins off within minutes.
Note
British parents use it for the hard part of bedtime: rocking, a bath or a story to get the baby off. Off here means into sleep, so the sentence is about settling a child, not lifting it down from a lap as in moving something off. The words around it, a cot, a lullaby, two in the morning, usually make that plain.
22
kissphrasal verbslangUKintransitive
To kiss someone romantically; to smooch.
Did you see Tom get off with Hannah at Friday's party?
They got off with each other at the school disco and have been inseparable since.
Note
Parties and school discos are its natural setting in Britain, and it nearly always takes with: she got off with him after the party. Elsewhere the same words are likely to be heard as the sexual meaning, so for an American listener, kiss or make out says it without the misunderstanding.
23
departphrasal verbdatedintransitive
To leave a place and set out on a journey.
Pack the car tonight so we can get off first thing in the morning.
"I think we should get off, Enid. It is nearly seven," said he.
1925, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, The Land of Mist
Similardepart, leave
Oppositearrive
Note
Set off is the everyday choice now, and this one can sound a little old-fashioned, yet novelists still give it to characters ready to leave: Conan Doyle's "I think we should get off, Enid. It is nearly seven," and, decades later, "We'll be able to get off right after breakfast." It means starting a journey from where you are, not stepping down from a bus or train.
24
say (a joke)phrasal verbdatedtransitive
To utter something, typically a joke or a clever line.
Even in the hospital, Grandpa managed to get off a joke about the food.
When Quayle looked silly by saying he would be a "pit bull" in the 1992 campaign, David Letterman got off a line about it ("For Halloween, he's going to be a Ninja Turtle"), but the general reaction was curiously tame.
1991, Newsweek
Similarcrack
Note
What is got off is short and pointed: a line, a joke, a quick remark. The use now sounds a little dated, and the thing said usually comes after off rather than between the two words, as when David Letterman got off a line about Quayle's "pit bull" boast.
25
achievephrasal verbdatedtransitive
To achieve something one set out to do, or to perform it successfully.
Nobody thought the underdogs could get off such a daring trick play, but it worked.
"If they get off their stunt I don't suppose they care a tinker's curse what is truth or what is not."
1925, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, The Land of Mist
Similarexecute
Note
Pull off has taken over this job. Where Conan Doyle could write of people who get off their stunt, a writer today would say they pull it off; met in older fiction, the phrase should be read that way.
26
solo (music)phrasal verbdatedUSintransitive
In music, to take a solo, or more generally to play really well.
When her turn came, the trumpeter stood up and got off for sixteen bars.
That drummer can really get off when the band lets him take a solo.
Note
It comes from the American bandstand and now sounds dated. The phrase takes no object, and it has nothing to do with stepping down: a player who gets off is just getting started, taking a solo or playing at full stretch.
27
phrasal verbdatedUS
To take something that belongs to someone else without permission; to steal it.

Practice

Can you tell the meanings of get off apart? Answer 3 quick questions from this page, or write your own sentence and AI will check it.