come off
Britishverb
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(also preposition) to fall (from), losing one's balance
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to become detached or be capable of being detached
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(preposition) to be removed from (a price, tax, etc)
will anything come off income tax in the budget?
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(copula) to emerge from or as if from a trial or contest
he came off the winner
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informal to take place or happen
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informal to have the intended effect; succeed
his jokes did not come off
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slang to have an orgasm
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informal stop trying to fool me!
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Happen, occur, as in The trip came off on schedule . [Early 1800s]
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Acquit oneself, reach the end. This usage always includes a modifier, as in Whenever challenged he comes off badly , or This model is doomed to come off second-best . [Mid-1600s]
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Succeed, as in Our dinner party really came off . [Mid-1800s]
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See come off it .
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Barker has said that, in writing the film, he wanted to explore the fear of men “not saying the right thing, or not wanting to come off like a creep.”
From Salon • Jun. 4, 2026
Some coasts will also be fresher, where sea breezes come off a cooler sea.
From BBC • May 24, 2026
“Sheep” aspires for Spielbergian catharsis — one scene seems to consider itself an art-house take on “A.I. Artificial Intelligence” — but the human characters come off as mechanical as the little robot boy.
From Los Angeles Times • May 19, 2026
Your child will have to call the institution that holds the account to retitle everything under their own name, at which point the proverbial training wheels come off.
From MarketWatch • May 5, 2026
She shifted around as much as she could without hurting herself, but the ice pack didn’t come off.
From "Two Degrees" by Alan Gratz
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
