Phrasal Verbs with OFF: Meanings, Examples & Practice (B2–C1)

Imagine this situation.

Your alarm goes off at six o’clock. You switch it off and decide to put off getting up for another ten minutes.

When you finally arrive at work, you discover that your manager has called off the morning meeting.

Four phrasal verbs with off — and four completely different meanings!

Phrasal verbs are everywhere in spoken and written English, but they can be tricky to learn. Sometimes the meaning is easy to understand. At other times, the combination of a familiar verb and a small particle creates an entirely new meaning.

In this lesson, you will learn 11 useful phrasal verbs with OFF, including their meanings, natural examples and common mistakes. You will also discover how to use them correctly in sentences and practise what you’ve learnt.

These expressions are particularly useful for learners preparing forB2 First andC1 Advanced, as well as anyone who wants to speak and write more naturally.

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1. Phrasal Verbs with OFF for Cancelling and Delaying

Two expressions that English learners sometimes confuse are call off and put off. Both are commonly used with meetings, events and arrangements, but they have different meanings.

CALL OFF — cancel something

We use call off when we decide that a planned activity or event will not take place.

• The football match was called off because of heavy rain.
• They decided to call off the meeting at the last minute.

Common combinations: call off a meeting, call off a match, call off a wedding, call off a search.

PUT OFF — postpone or delay something

When we put something off, we decide to do it at a later time.

• We’ve decided to put off the wedding until next spring.

Common combinations: put off a decision, put off a meeting, put off doing something.

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2. Phrasal Verbs with OFF for Interrupting and Resisting

CUT OFF — interrupt someone or stop a supply

We use cut off when someone is interrupted, a connection is broken, or a supply of something is stopped.

• I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to cut you off while you were speaking.
• The electricity was cut off because of the storm.

It can also mean that a place or person becomes isolated.

• The village was cut off by heavy snow.

Common combinations: cut off the electricity, cut someone off, be cut off from the outside world.

FIGHT OFF — resist or defend yourself against something

We often use fight off when talking about illness, attacks or unwanted feelings.

• She’s trying to fight off a cold.
• The immune system helps the body fight off infections.

Common combinations: fight off a cold, fight off an infection, fight off an attack.

3. Phrasal Verbs with OFF for Machines, Attention and Control

SWITCH OFF — turn off a device or stop thinking about something

We use switch off when we stop a machine or electrical device from working.

• Please switch off your mobile phone before the examination.
• He switched off the television and went to bed.

It can also mean to stop thinking about work or problems and relax.

• Reading helps me switch off in the evening.

This second meaning is particularly useful when talking about work–life balance, stress and relaxation.

TURN OFF — stop a machine, leave a road or make someone lose interest

Like switch off, turn off can refer to electrical devices.

• Don’t forget to turn off the lights.
• She turned off the computer before leaving.

It can also mean to leave a road.

• Turn off at the next junction.
• We turned off the motorway and followed a narrow country road.

In informal English, turn someone off can mean to make someone lose interest or enthusiasm.

• The aggressive advertising turned many customers off the product.

Switch off or turn off?

When talking about electrical devices, these expressions are usually interchangeable.

• Switch off the television.
• Turn off the television.

However, we normally use switch off when talking about relaxing mentally.

• After work, I just want to switch off for a while.

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4. Phrasal Verbs with OFF for Producing and Starting

GIVE OFF — produce or release something

We use give off when something produces a smell, light, heat or gas.

• These flowers give off a wonderful smell.
• The fire was giving off a lot of heat.

Common combinations: give off a smell, give off heat, give off light, give off fumes.

GO OFF — ring, explode, become spoiled or leave

Go off is especially interesting because it has several meanings.

Meaning 1: Start ringing or making a noise

• My alarm went off at half past six.

Meaning 2: Explode

• Fortunately, the bomb didn’t go off.

Meaning 3: Become spoiled (food or drink)

• The milk has gone off. Don’t drink it.

This meaning is particularly common in British English.

Meaning 4: Leave or depart

• He went off without saying goodbye.

Notice: The meaning of go off depends on the context. An alarm, some milk and a person can all go off, but they do very different things!

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5. Phrasal Verbs with OFF for Sleep, Movement and Separation

DROP OFF — fall asleep or take someone somewhere

Meaning 1: Fall asleep, sometimes without intending to.

• I dropped off while watching television.

Meaning 2: Take someone somewhere and leave them there, usually by car.

• I’ll drop you off at the station.

Common combinations: drop someone off at school, drop someone off at the airport, drop off to sleep.

FALL OFF — become detached or decrease

We use fall off when something falls from a surface or becomes detached.

• One of the buttons has fallen off my coat.

It can also mean to decrease in number, amount or quality.

• Sales have fallen off considerably this year.

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6. Phrasal Verbs with OFF for Results and Money

PAY OFF — produce a good result or finish paying a debt

Meaning 1: Produce a successful result after effort or patience

• Months of preparation paid off when she passed her C1 Advanced exam.
• Taking the time to learn new skills can pay off in the long run.

Common combinations: hard work pays off, efforts pay off, patience pays off.

Meaning 2: Finish paying money that you owe

• They finally paid off their mortgage.
• She’s hoping to pay off her student loan within five years.

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7. Important Grammar: Where Does the Object Go?

Some phrasal verbs with off are separable. This means we can place the object either between the verb and off or after the complete phrasal verb.

For example:

• They called off the meeting.
• They called the meeting off.

Both sentences are correct.

However, when the object is a personal pronoun such as it, him, her or them, it normally goes between the verb and off.

• ✓ They called it off.
• ✗ They called off it

Other phrasal verbs, such as go off in the sense of an alarm ringing, do not take a direct object.

• The alarm went off.
• Sales fell off.

Cambridge exam tip: Pay attention to these patterns when preparing for B2 First and C1 Advanced Reading and Use of English. Knowledge of phrasal verbs, their meanings and their grammatical patterns can be useful in vocabulary questions and Key Word Transformations.

A little extra practice: Choose three phrasal verbs from the lesson and write a sentence about your own life using each one.

You’ll remember expressions much more easily when you connect them to situations that are familiar to you.

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