Word.ws English Dictionary

heads off

heads off is the third-person singular simple present indicative of head off.

Meaning of 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.
    Synonyms:
    cut off
  3. (transitive) To avoid the undesirable consequences of; to prevent.
    • The government took steps to head off summertime shortages of gasoline.
  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.

Questions about heads off

What is heads off the third-person singular simple present indicative of?
Heads off is the third-person singular simple present indicative of head off.

Words near heads off in the dictionary

  1. heads of terms
  2. heads of the bill
  3. heads of the bills
  4. heads of the table
  5. Heads of the Valleys Road
  6. heads off
  7. heads off at the pass
  8. heads or harps
  9. heads or tails
  10. heads out
  11. heads south

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: heads off (page history and authors); head off (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.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “heads off.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/heads_off. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.