Word.ws English Dictionary

sounding off

sounding off is the present participle and gerund of sound off.

Meaning of sound off

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!
  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

Questions about sounding off

What is sounding off the present participle and gerund of?
Sounding off is the present participle and gerund of sound off.

Words near sounding off in the dictionary

  1. sounding boards
  2. sounding line
  3. sounding lines
  4. sounding machine
  5. sounding machines
  6. sounding off
  7. sounding out
  8. sounding rocket
  9. sounding rockets
  10. sounding rod
  11. sounding rods

Source and license

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

Last updated:

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