head off

present singular third person heads off · participle present heading off · participle past headed off · past headed off

1. intransitiveTo begin moving away.

   We will head off on our holidays tomorrow.

2. transitiveTo intercept.

   The cavalry will head off the bandits at the pass.

   1 more example

   Spurred by her early successes and lack of reprisal, AB has now gone beyond her original stance against gays as teachers and is now advocating a federal law to outlaw gays […] And she just may succeed if we do not move now in a way that we have never moved, to head her off.

   1978 February 11, Donald Cameron Scot, “Controversy and Boycott Must Continue”, in Gay Community News, volume 5, number 31, page 5

   Synonyms: cut off

3. transitiveTo avoid the undesirable consequences of; to prevent.

   The government took steps to head off summertime shortages of gasoline.

   2 more examples

   Theresa May will use a speech to the Scottish Conservative conference on Friday to try to head off growing nationalists’ demands for a second independence referendum.

   2017 February 27, Mure Dickie, Henry Mance, “Theresa May’s speech to head off Scottish independence poll”, in Financial Times

   Although the deal, announced hours before the deadline for registering coalitions expired, is intended to head off a split vote and to galvanise leftwing voters against the conservative People’s party (PP), which is leading the polls, there are enduring differences and tensions between Podemos and Sumar.

   2023 June 9, Sam Jones, “Podemos and leftist alliance Sumar agree to run jointly in Spain’s snap election”, in The Guardian, →ISSN

4. intransitiveTo start out.

   Perseus, St. George, Hercules, Jonah, and Vishnoo! there’s a member-roll for you! What club but the whaleman’s can head off like that?

   1851 November 14, Herman Melville, chapter 82, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC, page 405

5. nauticalTo turn away from the wind.