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

It’s common for lawmakers and advocacy groups to fire off outraged letters about a company’s alleged wrongdoing.

From Salon ● Sep. 1, 2026

A navy vessel and other ships rushed in Wednesday to rescue over 100 people from a ferry on fire off the tourist island of Bali, officials said, in the second such incident in days.

From Barron's ● Aug. 12, 2026

That’s all it took for the Seattle Storm’s Flau’jae Johnson to fire off a 27-foot three-point jumper to take the lead.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 7, 2026

Now they fire off messages from their phones and computers day and night.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 11, 2026

The daughters march behind her, four girls compressed in bodies as tight as bowstrings, each one tensed to fire off a woman’s heart on a different path to glory or damnation.

From "The Poisonwood Bible" by Barbara Kingsolver