HEAD OFF • DICCIONARIO INGLES.COM • Definition of Head off

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/hɛd ɔf/ Listen

verb

Head v. t. (past & past part. headed; pres. part. heading)

To be at the head of; to put one's self at the head of; to lead; to direct; to act as leader to; as, to head an army, an expedition, or a riot.

To form a head to; to fit or furnish with a head; as, to head a nail.

To behead; to decapitate. (Obs.)

To cut off the top of; to lop off; as, to head trees.

To go in front of; to get in the front of, so as to hinder or stop; to oppose; hence, to check or restrain; as, to head a drove of cattle; to head a person; the wind heads a ship.

To set on the head; as, to head a cask.

To head off, to intercept; to get before; as, an officer heads off a thief who is escaping. "We'll head them off at the pass."

To head up,

(a)

to close, as a cask or barrel, by fitting a head to.

(b)

To serve as the leader of; as, to head up a team of investigators.

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Etymology of 'Head off'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Head off" Quotes from Famous Books

... to say her prayers and just as he was going to chop her head off, her two brothers arrived at the castle, burst open the door, killed the cruel wretch, and rescued ...

— Cole's Funny Picture Book No. 1 • Edward William Cole

... of yours did the old man a good turn to-night, but you shan't make fools of us again." And a few days later, when Alexander attempted to head off the same mob as it made for the press of Rivington, the Tory printer, they would not listen to him. But the effort raised him still higher in the estimation of the patriots, for they saw that his love of law and order was as great as ...

— The Conqueror • Gertrude Franklin Atherton

... his head off and prepared for the night, while Winwood passed the word along to the forty lifers to be ready for the break. And two hours after midnight every guard in the prison was under orders. This included the day-shift which should ...

— The Jacket (The Star-Rover) • Jack London

... school, Mr Easy?" said Dr Middleton, who had been summoned by a groom with his horse in a foam to attend immediately at Forest Hill, the name of Mr Easy's mansion, and who, upon his arrival, had found that Master Easy had cut his thumb. One would have thought that he had cut his head off by the agitation pervading the whole household—Mr Easy walking up and down very uneasy, Mrs Easy with great difficulty prevented from syncope, and all the maids bustling and passing round Mrs Easy's chair. Everybody appeared excited except Master Jack Easy himself, who, with a rag round ...

— Mr. Midshipman Easy • Frederick Marryat

... down tightly," he explained. "That pasture fence is no good at all, and I never trusted to it. I pegged Blossom down with a good long rope, and Daisy, too; and Daisy is gone while Blossom is still eating her head off." ...

— Betty Gordon in the Land of Oil - The Farm That Was Worth a Fortune • Alice B. Emerson

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