First recorded in 1935–40; noun use of verb phrase die off
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The end-Permian mass extinction, the most devastating die-off in Earth's history, struck about 252 million years ago and was followed by extreme global warming.
From Science Daily ● Feb. 25, 2026
Earlier this year, scientists warned that bird flu had sparked the worst die-off on record for southern elephant seals when it spread among a population on Argentina's coast in 2023.
From Barron's ● Nov. 13, 2025
But the whelk is a cold-water species, and a marine heatwave in 2022 triggered a mass die-off of these snails in the Thames Estuary.
From BBC ● Aug. 10, 2025
He’s talking about the failure to recognize the consequences of climate change manifesting in the surrounding wetlands’ die-off.
From Salon ● Jul. 25, 2025
The die-off happened amazingly fast—the statistics, according to the study, suggest that it was instantaneous.
From "1491" by Charles C. Mann
If family farms die off and get “gobbled up” by giant corporations, consumer choices are reduced, Ross said.
From Salon ● Apr. 24, 2026
The rate at which trees die off in a forest can vary in response to different types of disturbances, or as forests grow thicker and there is greater competition for resources.
From Barron's ● Jan. 6, 2026
In February 2022, Cano and colleagues noticed that D. africanum had started to die off in large numbers off La Palma and Gomera, islands in the western part of the Canary archipelago.
From Science Daily ● Dec. 12, 2025
"If we don't do any conservation and let nature take its course and let say the oak die off, you would lose the wider biodiversity around that," said Mr Masters from Kew Gardens.
From BBC ● Oct. 19, 2025
Over the next few decades, most of the boomtowns, including Gray Horse, began to die off.
From "Killers of the Flower Moon" by David Grann
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.
