Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

stave off

Word Rarity Rare

Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.04 in modern English

Syllables: stave off
IPA

17

Scrabble Score

8

Letters

1

Syllables

7

Unique Chars

Meaning

verb

To prevent something from happening; to obviate or avert.

Example Sentences

"He drank plenty of orange juice, hoping to stave off the cold making the rounds at the office."
"[Enid] answer'd with such craft as women use, / Guilty or guiltless, to stave off a chance / That breaks upon them perilously, […]"
"LANCE: Only through my training as a sex machine am I able to stave off genital turgidity."
"So it was perhaps political backlash from the trebling of public transport times between Harlech to Porthmadog if buses took over that staved off immediate talks of closure and the release of a £241,000 subsidy (2020: £3.8m)."

Inflected Forms

staves off (present, singular) staving off (participle, present) staved off (participle, past) staved off (past) stove off (participle, past) stove off (past)

Synonyms

debar forefend forfend obviate deflect avert head off fend off avoid ward off

Questions

What does stave off mean?: To prevent something from happening; to obviate or avert.

How to pronounce stave off

Open the pronunciation page — Open the Speakur entry for “stave off”.
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