Word.ws English Dictionary

off to the races

off to the races prepositional phrase: in or into a process of energetic engagement in some activity; in or into a phase of conspicuously increasing satisfaction or success.

Prepositional phrase

  1. (idiomatic) In or into a process of energetic engagement in some activity; in or into a phase of conspicuously increasing satisfaction or success.
    • Last week the magazine's tenth annual rating of the nation's leading corporations showed that American business really went off to the races in 1963.1964 July 10, “Industry: Top Money”, in Time
    • 48 Hours […] was followed by hits such as Trading Places, Beverly Hills Cop and Raw. Eddie Murphy's career was off to the races.1994 June 3, Leonard Pitts Jr., “Movies”, in Milwaukee Journal, retrieved 26 Aug 2012, page 21E

Forms of off to the races

alternative formaway at the races
alternative formaway to the races
alternative formoff at the races

Questions about off to the races

What does off to the races mean?
Off to the races means in or into a process of energetic engagement in some activity; in or into a phase of conspicuously increasing satisfaction or success.
What part of speech is off to the races?
Off to the races is a prepositional phrase.

Words near off to the races in the dictionary

  1. off the wall
  2. off the water cart
  3. off the water wagon
  4. off time
  5. off times
  6. off to the races
  7. off topic
  8. off vocal
  9. off vocals
  10. off white
  11. off wiki

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: off to the races (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:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-off to the races.ogg.

Cite this entry: “off to the races.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/off_to_the_races. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.