stave off

Definitions

To prevent something from happening; to obviate or avert.

idiomatic

Equivalents

Examples

“He drank plenty of orange juice, hoping to stave off the cold making the rounds at the office.”

“[Enid] answer'd with such craft as women use⟳, / Guilty or guiltless, to stave off a chance / That breaks upon them perilously, […]”

“LANCE: Only through my training as a sex machine am I able to stave off genital turgidity.”

“So it was perhaps political backlash from the trebling of public transport⟳ times between Harlech to Porthmadog if buses took over that staved off immediate talks of closure and the release⟳ of a £241,000 subsidy (2020: £3.8m).”

CEFR level