get off

present singular third person gets off · participle present getting off · past got off · UK participle past got off · US participle past gotten off

1. To move away from a position of being physically on (something) or covering (something).
   1. intransitivetransitiveTo move (something) from being on top of (something else) to not being on top of it.

      Get that piano off my foot!

      2 more examples

      Get your elbows off the table!

      Could you please get the book off the top shelf for me?

   2. intransitivetransitiveTo move from being on top of (something) to not being on top of it.

      Get off! You're crushing me!

   3. intransitivetransitiveTo stop touching or physically interfering with something or someone.

      Don't tickle me – get off!

      1 more example

      You need to get off your sister if you want dessert tonight.

      Synonyms: stop, desist, refrain, leave alone, let alone

   4. ditransitiveintransitivetransitiveTo cause (something) to stop touching or interfering with something else.

      Get that dog off me!

      1 more example

      "And I'm going! Period." Puckering her lips, she made an ear-splitting whistle, clapped her hands and shouted, "Pluto! Max treat!" […] Max felt something tug on his pant leg. It was Pluto. "Jane! Get your dog off me!"

      1991, Lydia Lee, Thank Your Lucky Stars, Silhouette, →ISBN

   5. intransitivetransitiveTo dismount or climb down from (something).

      Get off the tractor, sir!

   6. ditransitiveintransitivetransitiveTo remove (something that is touching or covering).

      I got the paint off the wall.

      2 more examples

      I can't wait to get these clothes off.

      You have to get your hat off your head.

2. To depart from a location, route or conveyance.
   1. intransitivetransitiveTo disembark, especially from mass transportation such as a bus, ship or train.

      You get off the train at the third stop.

      2 more examples

      The heavens opened just as I got off the bus.

      WE GET OFF the train in the town of Zhongwei in the largely Muslim Ningxia autonomous region.

      1980 March, Rick Gore, “Journey to China's Far West”, in National Geographic Magazine, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 310, column 1

      Synonyms: alight, disembark from, leave, detrain, debus, deplane

   2. transitiveTo depart from (a path, highway, etc).

      When we reach the next stop, we'll get off.

      1 more example

      Let's get off the interstate at exit 70. No, let's get off at the very next exit.

   3. transitiveTo leave an island.

      We'll catch a flight to get off Long Island.

   4. transitiveTo make or help someone be ready to leave a place (especially to go to another place).

      "I get up and get the kids off. I do everything normal mothers do. I just do it in less time."

      2010, Peter Lovenheim, In the Neighborhood: The Search for Community on an American Street, One Sleepover at a Time, Penguin, →ISBN

   5. datedpossiblyTo leave (somewhere) and start (a trip).

      "I think we should get off, Enid. It is nearly seven," said he.

      1925 July – 1926 May, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “(please specify the chapter number)”, in The Land of Mist (eBook no. 0601351h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg Australia, published April 2019

      2 more examples

      “I've been out for a walk around. The rain's blown over. We'll be able to get off right after breakfast.”

      2016, D. G. Compton, The Continuous Katherine Mortenhoe, New York Review of Books, →ISBN, page 155

      'I'm beginning to feel like London again. I wish we could get off right after breakfast.'

      2017, Jane Gardam, Faith Fox, Europa Editions, →ISBN

3. To leave from a job or stop an experience.
   1. intransitivetransitiveTo leave one's job, school or another commitment, as scheduled or with permission.

      If I can get off early tomorrow, I'll give you a ride home.

   2. intransitiveTo leave work consistently at a designated time.

      I get off at four, as always.

   3. transitiveTo reserve or have a period of time as a vacation from work.

      She managed to get a week off in March to go to Paris.

   4. transitiveTo leave a project or assignment.

      I'm hoping to get off the Henderson project.

   5. transitiveTo stop following, harassing or nitpicking (someone).

      You need to get off my ass!

   6. transitiveTo stop using a piece of equipment, such as a telephone or computer.

      Can you get off the phone, please? I need to use it urgently.

   7. slangtransitiveTo stop partaking or participating (in a course of action, habit or activity).

      You need to get off the candy.

      1 more example

      I'll get off this low-carb diet.

   8. slangtransitiveTo quit using a drug.

      I need to get off heroin.

4. To avoid consequences or assist in the avoidance of consequences.
   1. intransitiveTo escape serious or severe consequences; to receive only mild or no punishment (or injuries, etc) for something one has done or been accused of.

      The vandal got off easy, with only a fine.

      5 more examples

      You got off lightly by not being kept in detention for breaking that window.

      "But I find you have been there after all," said the man, "and now you shall lose your life." The lad cried and begged for himself till he got off with his life; but he got a good thrashing.

      1886, Peter Christen Asbjø￵rnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 216

      He was allowed to rise with a warning that if he played any tricks he would not get off so lightly the second time.

      1925 July – 1926 May, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “(please specify the chapter number)”, in The Land of Mist (eBook no. 0601351h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg Australia, published April 2019

      Then he was charged with killing some sheep and a steer on the run, and converting them to his own use, but got off mainly because there was a difference of opinion between the squatter and the other local J.P. concerning politics ...

      1962, Henry Lawson, Prose Works

      My parents were killed, but I got off with only a broken arm and a broken leg.

      2000, Morris Philipson, A Man in Charge: A Novel, University of Chicago Press, →ISBN, page 174

   2. transitiveTo help someone to escape serious or severe consequences and receive only mild or no punishment.

      She could've faced jail time, but her talented lawyer got her off with only a fine.

   3. USdatedditransitiveintransitiveslangTo steal (something) successfully.

      We got off with the loot.

      2 more examples

      The pickpocket got my watch off me.

      They got a thousand dollars off her.

5. To transmit or receive (something).
   1. ditransitiveTo acquire (something) from (someone or something).

      Go get a cup of sugar off Missus Haggerty next door.

      3 more examples

      Well I'll have to get a form off Rosemary Boyle to get money out your bank.

      2001, Jonathan Harvey, Out In The Open, Bloomsbury Methuen Drama, →ISBN

      They said if they sent a form to me it would take about ten days, but if I could get a form off the Internet, I would greatly speed up the process.

      2017, Barbara Robey Egloff Shackett, Stranded in Montana; Dumped in Arizona, Dorrance Publishing, page 202

      I'll get her to come and get a script off you in, say, a fortnight? And then I want you on all the shoots with me and Kate and that gothic tosspot who's presenting. You never know when it might need a rewrite, or he might need a kick up the arse, ...

      2019, Christopher Beanland, The Wall in the Head, Unbound Publishing, →ISBN

   2. transitiveTo send (something); to discharge (a communication).

      I got the email off before the deadline.

      1 more example

      She intended to get a letter off to her sister first thing that morning.

   3. ditransitiveTo receive data, a message, etc.

      They got the code off me.

      2 more examples

      We're getting a signal off the satellite dish.

      I'll get today's lunch off the menu.

6. To cause or act as to cause an emotion, sensation or state of mind.
   1. UKtransitiveTo make (someone) fall asleep.

      He couldn't get the infant off until nearly two in the morning.

   2. UKintransitiveTo fall asleep.

      If I wake up during the night, I cannot get off again.

      Synonyms: drop off

   3. slangtransitiveTo excite or arouse, especially in a sexual manner, as to cause to experience orgasm.

      I know how to get her off.

      5 more examples

      This woman hadn't had an orgasm in maybe 10 years. It took me three hours to get her off.

      1980, Paul Schrader, American Gigolo, spoken by Julian Kaye (Richard Gere)

      What? You don't think I know how to get myself off? Hell, that's what half of band camp is. Sex Ed.

      1999, Adam Herz, American Pie (motion picture), spoken by Michelle (Alyson Hannigan)

      It was Need. Her Need took her half in sleep onto her pillow and with her own hand got her off.

      2011, Kirsten Kaschock, Sleight: A Novel, Coffee House Press, →ISBN

      Her husband's tongue was fast and ingenious, mastered at teasing her clit with rapid, fluttering flicks, and he knew how much pressure she liked from years of getting her off.

      2015, Cara McKenna, Crosstown Crush: A Sins In the City Novel, Penguin, →ISBN

      What'd she do to get you off? (Uh-huh) Taking down her hair like, oh, my God Taking off your shirt, I did that once Or twice, uh

      2024, Gracie Abrams, Audrey Hobert, “That's So True”, in The Secret of Us, performed by Gracie Abrams

   4. intransitiveslangTo experience great pleasure, especially sexual pleasure; in particular, to experience an orgasm; to get off on (something).

      It takes more than a picture in a girlie magazine for me to get off.

      3 more examples

      I knew, because both Alison and Penny had taught me, that busting up with someone could be miserable, but I didn't know that getting off with someone could be miserable too.

      1995, Nick Hornby, High Fidelity, London: Victor Gollancz, →ISBN, page 19

      For example, one addict would crack shorts (break and enter cars) and usually obtain just enough stolen goods to buy stuff and get off just before getting sick.

      1975, Mary Sanches, Ben G. Blount, Sociocultural Dimensions of Language Use, page 47

      Out of spite, Pharaoh cuts straw supplies and Jewish labourers have to make bricks without straw, the same target rates of productivity as before, but with no straw – virtually impossible. Pharaoh gets off on their exhaustion:

      2009, Rob Lacey, word on the street, eBook, Zondervan, →ISBN

      Synonyms: cop off

   5. slangtransitiveTo masturbate; to achieve sexual satisfaction through masturbation.

      I hadn't gotten myself off in weeks.

   6. UKintransitiveslangTo kiss; to flirt successfully; to hook up or make out with a desired person.

      I'd like to get off with him after the party.

   7. intransitiveslangtransitiveTo get high (on a drug); to get (someone) high on a drug.

      I really get off with cocaine.

      4 more examples

      That drug dealer's heroin really gets the addicts off.

      The beginner's dose may be anywhere from 100 to 250 mikes — micrograms, or millionths of a gram. Most hardened heads need 600 to 800 mikes, and some as many as 1,400 mikes, before they experience any sensation of getting off.

      1970, Milton Travers, Each Other's Victims, page 43

      Each person has a more outrageous story than the previous teller. […] "The first time I got off on cocaine, man, it was just too fine."

      1985, Joanne Baum, One step over the line: a no-nonsense guide to recognizing and treating cocaine dependency, HarperCollins, →ISBN

      Fear is biochemically similar to someone "getting off" on cocaine.

      1989, Cardwell C. Nuckols, Cocaine: From Dependency to Recovery, →ISBN, page 2

   8. especiallytransitiveTo find enjoyment (in behaving in a presumptuous, rude, or intrusive manner).

      Where do you get off talking to me like that?

      1 more example

      in a word: he’s almost nobody, but his head’s filled with freedom, omniscience, transcendence beyond his foolish flesh, just where does he get off!

      1981, Magnus J. Krynski and Robert A. Maguire, “A Million Laughs, A Bright Hope”, translating Wisława Szymborska, “Sto Pociech” in Sounds, Feelings, Thoughts: Seventy Poems by Wisława Szymborska

7. To succeed in an act; to perform an action.
   1. datedtransitiveTo achieve (a goal); to successfully perform.

      We'll get the concert off, I'm sure.

      1 more example

      "If they get off their stunt I don't suppose they care a tinker's curse what is truth or what is not."

      1925 July – 1926 May, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “(please specify the chapter number)”, in The Land of Mist (eBook no. 0601351h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg Australia, published April 2019

   2. USdatedintransitiveslangTo perform a musical solo; to play music well.
   3. transitiveTo fart, burp, etc.

      I felt better after I got a fart off.

   4. datedtransitiveTo utter.

      I'm hoping to get off a joke during the dinner party.

      3 more examples

      He got a series of insults off before I could come up with a single retort.

      I heard Nelson Algren on the Chez Show, a radio program emanating from the Sapphire Bar of the Chez Paree—you see I've sunk to the lower depths—and he got off a line about Hollywood being a con man's paradise, which wasn't a very ...

      1942-1963, J. F. Powers, quoted in 2013, Katherine A. Powers, Suitable Accommodations: An Autobiographical Story of Family Life: The Letters of J. F. Powers, 1942-1963, Macmillan, page 155

      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

8. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see get, off.

1. intransitiveIndicates annoyance or dismissiveness.

   "And you're the only person in the country who can do it." "Get off," she said skeptically.

   2001, Ken Follett, Jackdaws, Dutton, →ISBN, page 140