lift off

1. Begin flight, as in The spacecraft was due to lift off at ten o'clock. The off in this idiom means “off the ground.” [Late 1800s]

Example Sentences

The engines started buzzing and the machine lifted off the ground and flew home.

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It’s ‘Top Gun’ in orbit: Future wars will be fought in space — and these stocks are lifting off.

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At his mother's home, an hour away in Manchester Parish, "the winds have been so strong part of the roof has lifted off", he said.

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Harvey's mother, Caroline Willgoose, said she felt "like a big weight has been lifted off my shoulders".

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“I felt bad. I felt terribly bad,” he said, adding that apologizing to fellow stars felt like a weight had been lifted off his shoulders.

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