GOING OFF Synonyms: 165 Similar and Opposite Words

going off

verb

present participle of go off

as in exploding

to break open or into pieces usually because of internal pressure specialists were able to deactivate the bomb before it went off

Synonyms & Similar Words

Relevance

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

as in progressing

to move forward along a course the wedding went off without so much as a single glitch

Synonyms & Similar Words

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

as in departing

to leave a place often for another don't go off without telling us where we can find you

Synonyms & Similar Words

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Recent Examples of going off Next came Wild Horse Nine’s John Malkovich, who won the Best Actor prize at Venice for his performance as a CIA assassin going off the rails. — Nate Jones, Vulture, 9 Oct. 2026 Amid the confusion of going off course to get the injured girl to safety and then trying to return to the race, Villarreal got sidetracked. — Steve Millar, Chicago Tribune, 8 Oct. 2026 Equipment is becoming more accessible, but just horror inherently has always been a more accessible genre than something like going off to make a period drama that’s expensive. — William Earl, Variety, 28 Sep. 2026 Most bears stay with their mothers for two to three summers before going off on their own. — Popular Science Team, Popular Science, 25 Sep. 2026 Single-Node Contention Under Concurrent Agent Queries A distributed, scale-out architecture spreads those concurrent operations across many nodes, so adding agents means adding capacity rather than going off a cliff. — Gopi Duddi, Forbes.com, 4 Sep. 2026 Tadej Pogačar continued his impressive run at the Spanish Vuelta on Thursday, winning the sixth stage after going off track and nearly crashing on a quick descent. — ABC News, 27 Aug. 2026 The robbery was meticulously planned by the thieves; prior to the alarms going off at the museum, an alarm had gone off at the city’s sports center that authorities are calling suspicious. — Hikmat Mohammed, ARTnews.com, 27 Aug. 2026 If time expires, the player going off must still leave the field. — Graham Scott, New York Times, 20 Aug. 2026

Recent Examples of Synonyms for going off

Verb

Prosecutors said the fire smoldered underground for a week before exploding into the deadly Palisades fire.

— Brittny Mejia, Los Angeles Times, 22 Oct. 2026
Even at a time when golf is exploding in popularity, and greens fees are rising at the same rate, getting in a round at East Potomac is an inclusive experience.

— Kyle Feldscher, CNN Money, 21 Oct. 2026

Definition of exploding

Verb

The company said the Versace integration is progressing on track, ahead of the creative debut of Pieter Mulier in 2027.

— Luisa Zargani, Footwear News, 22 Oct. 2026
Port Eastside’s partners are progressing toward a winter groundbreaking for work on the $90 million reuse of 111 Founders Plaza into a 19-story upscale apartment complex.

— Don Stacom, Hartford Courant, 22 Oct. 2026

Definition of progressing

Verb

Meanwhile, Russia's civil aviation authority, Rosaviatsia, said Friday afternoon that all four Moscow airports -- Sheremetyevo, Vnukovo, Domodedovo and Zhukovsky -- stopped flights arriving and departing for security reasons.

— Arkansas Online, Arkansas Online, 24 Oct. 2026
Paramount+ head of originals Jane Wiseman is departing the streamer as the post-merger combination of it and HBO Max takes shape.

— Rick Porter, HollywoodReporter, 23 Oct. 2026

Definition of departing

Verb

Akhtar the author, though, is conducting a stealthy psyop aimed at detonating the certainties of combatants on both sides.

— Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 1 Oct. 2026
Jentleson compares the power of fusing race and these questions of fairness to detonating a nuclear warhead.

— Isaac Arnsdorf, New Yorker, 18 Sep. 2026

Definition of detonating

Verb

In 2025 the hyperscalers alone poured more than $300 billion into data centers, chips, and grid capacity, and that spend is doing real work in the top-line growth figures.

— Stephen Messer, Fortune, 23 Oct. 2026
What employers are doing Kostka says there have recently been fewer health insurers in her area to choose from.

— Alana Semuels, Time, 22 Oct. 2026

Definition of doing

Verb

To be sure, the exiting attorneys were motivated to depart by a range of reasons.

— Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 24 Oct. 2026
Travelers headed to the Napa Valley or Sonoma County coast can make a fairly easy diversion by exiting Interstate 80 about 6 miles north of Highway 37.

— Madison Smalstig, Sacbee.com, 23 Oct. 2026

Definition of exiting

Verb

Officials had budgeted $100,000 for the program and wound up blowing through that in just a few hours.

— Jack Dolan, Los Angeles Times, 23 Oct. 2026
While animal rights advocates have pushed for Congress to adopt legislation that would phase out the fur industry, buying out farmers over the course of a year to end the practice once and for all, winds in Congress are blowing the other direction.

— Nat Lash, ProPublica, 23 Oct. 2026

Definition of blowing

Verb

Maria Dolores Roehling’s 9-year-old son was speeding on his e-motorcycle capable of going faster than 47 mph when he was hit by a pickup truck, prosecutors said.

— Suhauna Hussain, Los Angeles Times, 22 Oct. 2026
Other fraternity members blocked Jane Doe’s friend from going upstairs to look for her, according to the lawsuit.

— Lila Hempel-Edgers, Chicago Tribune, 22 Oct. 2026