stave off

British  

verb

1. (tr, adverb) to avert or hold off (something undesirable or harmful), esp temporarily

   to stave off hunger

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stave off Idioms  

1. Keep or hold away, repel, as in The Federal Reserve Board is determined to stave off inflation. This metaphoric expression transfers beating something off with a staff or stave to nonphysical repulsion. [c. 1600]

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

stave off

Inside the secretive lab shaping America’s retail landscape: At a Florida lab few have ever seen, a team of researchers is trying to stave off a purported epidemic of shoplifting.

From Slate ● Jul. 13, 2026

Without active efforts to lower players’ core temperatures, pausing game play may not be enough to effectively stave off heat injury, he wrote.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 7, 2026

If anyone could whip the Americans into shape in under two years and stave off potential embarrassment on home soil, it was him.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 1, 2026

The proposals are part of a desperate, eleventh-hour bid to stave off economic collapse in the face of unprecedented US pressure.

From Barron's ● Jun. 18, 2026

They all wore handkerchiefs or printed Bombay Dyeing hand towels on their heads to stave off the sun.

From "The God of Small Things" by Arundhati Roy