see off
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English
[edit]Verb
[edit]see off (third-person singular simple present sees off, present participle seeing off, simple past saw off, past participle seen off)
- To accompany someone to a point of departure; to ensure someone departs safely.
- Many friends came to see me off.
- 1939 July, Cecil J. Allen, “British Locomotive Practice and Performance”, in Railway Magazine, page 20:
- During the interval my friend, who was seeing me off, observing a wheel-tapper at his work, and having the incredulity which decides that there can be no practical outcome of this mysterious operation, asked me what did happen if the wheel-tapper discovered anything amiss.
- (British) To defeat; to get rid of.
- A salesman came to my door, but the dogs soon saw him off.
- 2011 October 15, Owen Phillips, “Stoke 2 - 0 Fulham”, in BBC Sport[1]:
- Jon Walters and Rory Delap scored late goals as Stoke continued their unbeaten home start by seeing off Fulham with a dominant second-half display.
- 2023 February 22, Howard Johnston, “Southern '313s': is the end now in sight?”, in RAIL, number 977, page 40:
- Only four units (455704/726/736/740) are yet scrapped, but the new Class 701s will soon see them all off.
- 2024 May 29, Simon Hattenstone, “The radical, ravishing rebirth of Tracey Emin: ‘I didn’t want to die as some mediocre YBA’”, in The Guardian[2], →ISSN:
- You Keep Fucking Me is one of the highlights of a new exhibition of her paintings, all of them created since her diagnosis with a cancer that should, by rights, have seen her off.
Translations
[edit]to accompany someone to a point of departure
|
to defeat — see defeat
