walk away from

present singular third person walks away from · participle present walking away from · participle past walked away from · past walked away from

1. idiomaticTo abandon or leave; to shun; to refuse.

   If you walk away from this offer you will live to regret it.

   3 more examples

   He decided to walk away from his job after expressing much dissatisfaction with his boss.

   If I walk away from you I'd be the one to hurt

   1968 December 8, Henry Cosby, Sylvia Moy, Stevie Wonder, “I’d Be a Fool Right Now”, in For Once in My Life, performed by Stevie Wonder, Tamla Records

   When John Lithgow was announced as Dumbledore, he revealed that a friend had sent him a link to an article entitled: “An open letter to John Lithgow: Please walk away from Harry Potter.”

   2025 June 11, Stuart Heritage, “‘Please walk away from Harry Potter’: why the stars of HBO’s new TV show are in for decades of social media hell”, in The Guardian, →ISSN

2. idiomaticTo escape (a mishap, accident, etc.) with minimal or no injury.

   This fall's visitors have included a motorcyclist who flipped his bike at 150 m.p.h. and walked away from the wreck muttering: "I thought I had stopped."

   1965 November 12, “Auto Racing: Mr. & Mrs. Speedlove”, in Time

3. idiomaticTo outpace effortlessly.

   This blue Camaro looked bad, sounded worse and would run like a raped ape. I have no idea what-all-else Wayne did to this car, but it was a six-cylinder that would walk away from every car I came against.

   2005, Chuck E. Sanders, The Making of a Minister, page 59