go off

verb

went off; gone off; going off; goes off

intransitive verb

1

a

: explode

b

of a gun : shoot sense 1

2

: to burst forth or break out suddenly or noisily

3

: to go forth, out, or away : leave

went off to join the army

4

: to undergo decline or deterioration

5

: to follow the expected or desired course : proceed

The party went off well.

6

: to make a characteristic noise : sound

could hear the alarm going off

7

: to stop working

All the lights suddenly went off.

see also:

go off the deep end go off with

Synonyms of go off

• explode
• detonate
• pop
• blow
• burst

Examples of go off in a Sentence

specialists were able to deactivate the bomb before it went off

the wedding went off without so much as a single glitch

Recent Examples on the Web

One person died Wednesday morning after a car went off County Road 105 and into the Willow Slough Bypass in the Yolo Bypass area, according to authorities. — Sacramento Bee Contributor, Sacbee.com, 7 Oct. 2026

Mancuso was selected to run Paramount after Diller went off to head 20th Century Fox. — Richard Natale, Variety, 7 Oct. 2026

At the same time, an even bigger trade went off in options on Meta despite the social media giant rallying 20% the past month as downloads of the tech giant's personal assistant Muse soar. — Oliver Renick, CNBC, 7 Oct. 2026

An air raid alert went off as Merz and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy visited the site of a drone attack on the National Academy of Sciences last week. — Yuliya Talmazan, NBC news, 5 Oct. 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1560, in the meaning defined at sense 1a

Rhymes for go off

• ashraf
• checkoff
• cutoff
• falloff
• handoff
• kickoff
• layoff
• liftoff
• markoff
• markov
• payoff
• playoff

Kids Definition

go off

verb

1

: explode sense 2b

2

: to burst forth or break out suddenly or noisily

3

: to take place : proceed

the dance went off as planned