work off

British  

verb

1. to get rid of or dissipate, as by effort

   he worked off some of his energy by digging the garden

2. to discharge (a debt) by labour rather than payment

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work off Idioms  

1. Get rid of by work or effort, as in They worked off that big dinner by running on the beach, or It'll take him months to work off that debt. [Second half of 1600s]

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Example Sentences

But what they can give us is a baseline to work off, she says.

From BBC

As the chart above shows, a stock doesn’t have to sell off sharply for overbought conditions to be worked off, as “it can simply consolidate for a period,” Morrison wrote.

From MarketWatch

I appreciate that stat because when I started out in management a million years ago, I worked off the basis that a clean sheet was worth twice as much as scoring a goal.

From BBC

"I was also working off my mother-in-law's dining table for about nine months," recalled Mr Root, whose head office is now in Bristol.

From BBC

Before the vote, one source told me about the concept of a good defeat - something the party could work off.

From BBC