beat off

present singular third person beats off · participle present beating off · participle past beaten off

1. figurativelyoftentransitiveTo drive something away with blows or military force.

   (Betty) Did you have any trouble rescuing me? (Archie) I sure did, Betty! I had to beat off three other guys!

   1968 September 28, Betty & Me, volume 16, Archie Comics, front cover

   3 more examples

   ...which Action did not so much grieve the English, as trouble and vex the Picts and Scots, who were incessantly gauled and frequently beat off by these Danish Troops.

   1697, Carradoc Of Lhancarvan, The history of Wales, page 33

   First reports were that the Reds, in five gunboats and swarms of junks, succeeded in landing on tiny Wuchiu in Formosa Strait, but were beaten off with many captured.

   1954 November 27, “Red Assault on Tiny Isle Beaten Off, Say Nationalists”, in The Daily Colonist, volume 96, number 294, Victoria, British Columbia, page 1, column 6

   London Liverpool Street beat off stiff competition to be highly commended in this category, despite having had no major redevelopment for three decades.

   2021 September 22, “National Rail Awards 2021: London Liverpool Street - Network Rail”, in RAIL, number 940, page 47

2. CanadaUScolloquialidiomaticintransitivevulgarTo masturbate by stimulating one's own penis.

   She so bad, she make me wanna beat my shit off til' it's purple.

   1 more example

   Example 1: "I don't need a girlfriend. I just need some swimsuit catalogs, so I can beat off six or seven times a day."

   2003, David Burke, The Slangman guide to dirty English: dangerous expressions Americans use, page 13

   Synonyms: abuse, bash one out, bate, beat it, crank one out, fap, frig, goon

3. colloquialidiomaticintransitivevulgarTo waste time.

   I beat off at work all day; I didn't get anything done.

4. slangtransitiveAfrican-American VernacularTo shoot (a gun).

   He beat his pistol off into the air.