head off

Verb

head off (third-person singular simple present heads off, present participle heading off, simple past and past participle headed off)

1. (intransitive) To begin moving away.
   • We will head off on our holidays tomorrow.
2. (transitive) To intercept.
   • The cavalry will head off the bandits at the pass.
   • Spurred by her early successes and lack of reprisal, AB has now gone beyond her original stance against gays as teachers and is now advocating a federal law to outlaw gays […] And she just may succeed if we do not move now in a way that we have never moved, to head her off.1978 February 11, Donald Cameron Scot, “Controversy and Boycott Must Continue”, in Gay Community News, volume 5, number 31, page 5

   Synonyms:

   cut off

3. (transitive) To avoid the undesirable consequences of; to prevent.
   • The government took steps to head off summertime shortages of gasoline.
   • Theresa May will use a speech to the Scottish Conservative conference on Friday to try to head off growing nationalists’ demands for a second independence referendum.2017 February 27, Mure Dickie, Henry Mance, “Theresa May’s speech to head off Scottish independence poll”, in Financial Times
4. (intransitive) To start out.
   • Perseus, St. George, Hercules, Jonah, and Vishnoo! there’s a member-roll for you! What club but the whaleman’s can head off like that?1851 November 14, Herman Melville, chapter 82, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC, page 405
5. To turn away from the wind.