Word.ws English Dictionary

head off at the pass

head off at the pass verb: to endeavor to catch someone or something as they pass a specific, known point, as at a pass between mountains.

Verb

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

  1. (transitive) To endeavor to catch someone or something as they pass a specific, known point, as at a pass between mountains.
  2. (transitive) To forestall (something).

Synonyms of head off at the pass

Forms of head off at the pass

third-person singular presentheads off at the pass
present participleheading off at the pass
past participleheaded off at the pass
pastheaded off at the pass

Questions about head off at the pass

What does head off at the pass mean?
Head off at the pass means to endeavor to catch someone or something as they pass a specific, known point, as at a pass between mountains.
What part of speech is head off at the pass?
Head off at the pass is a verb.
What is the past tense of head off at the pass?
The past tense of head off at the pass is headed off at the pass.

Words near head off at the pass in the dictionary

  1. head of state
  2. head of steam
  3. head of the table
  4. Head of the Tide
  5. head off
  6. head off at the pass
  7. head office
  8. head offices
  9. head on
  10. head on one's shoulders
  11. head orgasm

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: head off at the pass (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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