fire off

Idioms  

1. Say or write and send away rapidly, as in He fired off three more questions, or She fired off a letter of complaint to the president. This expression originally (from about 1700) was, and still is, used in the sense of “discharge a weapon or ammunition,” as in The police were instructed to fire off canisters of tear gas. The figurative use dates from the late 1800s.

---

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

fire off

There must be no prep involved, so they can just show up to the set and fire off some lines, right?

From Salon ● Jul. 12, 2026

But even as the fans fire off hot takes, they keep flocking to the group’s shows.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 6, 2026

Jerry Stiller was protective of his son’s showbiz ambitions, so much so that if a critic gave Ben a bad review, Jerry would sit down and fire off a letter.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 18, 2025

We were getting in our cars when we heard that there was another fire, off the 101 Freeway — so we didn’t want to risk driving that way.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 4, 2025

He was initially stymied by the essays, which he tried to fire off as irreverent, impulsive e-mail messages.

From "Geeks: How Two Lost Boys Rode the Internet Out of Idaho" by Jon Katz