pop off
Britishverb
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to depart suddenly or unexpectedly
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to die, esp suddenly or unexpectedly
he popped off at the age of sixty
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to speak out angrily or indiscreetly
he popped off at his boss and got fired
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Leave abruptly or hurriedly, as in I'm just going to pop off and mail some letters .
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Die suddenly, as in No one expected her to pop off like that . [ Colloquial ; second half of 1700s]
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Speak thoughtlessly in an angry outburst, as in Don't pop off at me—complain to whoever's responsible . [ Slang ; c. 1930]
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pop someone off . Kill someone, as in The sniper popped off at least three men . [ Slang ; early 1800s] All four usages transfer pop in the sense of “explode” to other kinds of sudden or violent behavior.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
“There’s a lot of guys that you may look at their height, weight, speed and it may not pop off the paper, but football isn’t played on paper.”
From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 5, 2026
“Earthquakes pop off around the state, and it’s a little bit like popcorn that they hit — sometimes they bunch up for reasons that we don’t understand,” said Susan Hough, seismologist for the U.S.
From Los Angeles Times • Oct. 10, 2024
“Hiii, oh my god, the fit is fitting, pop off king!” she says at the start of a recent video that has over 200,000 likes.
From New York Times • Jun. 13, 2024
If a railroad sandwiches a group of empty railcars between two sets of heavy coal cars, those lighter cars are more likely to be squeezed and pop off the tracks when going downhill.
From Seattle Times • Feb. 2, 2024
He held his hands tightly against the sides of his head as I spoke, as if his head might pop off his body if he didn’t keep hold of it.
From Each Little Bird That Sings by Deborah Wiles
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
