Word.ws English Dictionary

sound off

sound off verb: to hold forth about something in an opinionated manner.

Verb

sound off (third-person singular simple present sounds off, present participle sounding off, simple past and past participle sounded off)

  1. (informal, transitive) To hold forth about something in an opinionated manner.
    • I'm sick of his sounding off about how he thinks this country should be run!
    • I would give anything to be at the hearing so that I could really sound off about this attempt to cram another liquor license into Jamaica Plain. I say kill it today.1986 February 1, Kim Westheimer, quoting Albert O'Neil, “Board Hears Testimony on Saints' Liquor License”, in Gay Community News, volume 13, number 28, page 10
  2. Command instructing a person to speak up or acknowledge something.
    • Hartman: […] Do you maggots understand that?
      Recruits: Sir, yes, sir!
      Hartman: Bullshit! I can't hear you. Sound off like you got a pair.
      Recruits: SIR, YES, SIR!1987, Stanley Kubrick, director, Full Metal Jacket
  3. Command instructing a person to confirm that they are present or that some other objective has been met.
    • Cyclops: […] X-men… Sound off …
      Man 1: Iceman, sounding off!Man 2: Fireman, sounding off!
      Man 3: Clothing-Man, sounding off!
      Man 4: Ability-to-Hop-Man, here!2004, Astonishing X-Men, number 5, Marvel Comics
    • Tagon: Sound off! Brad, do you have the Ambassador?
      Brad: Check!
      Tagon: Schlock, do you have our money?
      Schlock: Check!
      Tagon: Are we still being pursued?
      Creeth Soldiers: Check!2000 August 19, Schlock Mercenary

Forms of sound off

third-person singular presentsounds off
present participlesounding off
past participlesounded off
pastsounded off

Questions about sound off

What does sound off mean?
Sound off means to hold forth about something in an opinionated manner.
What part of speech is sound off?
Sound off is a verb.
What is the past tense of sound off?
The past tense of sound off is sounded off.

Words near sound off in the dictionary

  1. sound mirror
  2. sound mirrors
  3. sound money
  4. sound moneys
  5. Sound of Sleat
  6. sound off
  7. sound on the goose
  8. sound out
  9. sound plural
  10. sound plurals
  11. sound poetries

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: sound 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.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-sound off.wav.

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