staving off

verb

Definition of staving offnext
present participle of stave off
1
as in turning back
to drive back managed to stave off the invaders

Synonyms & Similar Words

Relevance

Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in preventing
to keep from happening by taking action in advance the quartermaster staved off a shortage by requisitioning more than enough supplies

Synonyms & Similar Words

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Examples Sentences

Recent Examples of Synonyms for staving off
  1. preventing
  2. averting
  3. repelling
  4. resisting
Verb
  • Thermostats matter Being prepared is key to preventing frozen pipes, Prime Drain Cleaning and Plumbing Owner Brycen Sperlich told USA TODAY.
    Natalie Neysa Alund, USA TODAY, 4 Jan. 2025
  • Without the need to respect Miami’s rushing attack teams cap off their secondary with two-safety-high looks, preventing Miami’s deep passes.
    Omar Kelly, Miami Herald, 4 Jan. 2025
Definition of preventing
Verb
  • Carter quickly intervened with Israeli authorities to work out a solution that allowed Palestinians with appropriate ID cards to cast their ballots, even if their names weren't on the lists, averting wider problems that could have marred the process.
    George Monastiriakos, Newsweek, 30 Dec. 2024
  • Then on January 5 of this year, a door plug on an Alaska Airlines MAX 9 blew out causing an uncontrolled decompression and narrowly averting another fatal accident.
    Jerrold Lundquist, Forbes, 28 Dec. 2024
Definition of averting
Verb
  • Chechen media reported Wednesday that Russian forces were repelling drone attacks in the region.
    Rebecca Falconer, Axios, 30 Dec. 2024
  • But that decline can be understood as a pragmatic understanding of the difficulties of repelling an invading force.
    Anton Grushetskyi, Foreign Affairs, 30 Dec. 2024
Definition of repelling
Verb
  • He was arrested again in 2016, during his four-year probation term, for shoplifting from a local Walmart and resisting security and was sent back to prison.
    Shirsho Dasgupta, Miami Herald, 8 Jan. 2025
  • The result of a complex physical and chemical treatment process, the finish gets its name for its ceramic-like feel and matte finish while resisting scratches and scuffs.
    Brian Westover, PCMAG, 8 Jan. 2025
Definition of resisting
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Thesaurus Entries Near staving off

staves off

staving off

stay

See More Nearby Entries 

Cite this Entry

“Staving off.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/staving%20off. Accessed 19 Jan. 2025.

Copy Citation

Share

More from Merriam-Webster on staving off

Nglish: Translation of staving off for Spanish Speakers

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!

Popular in Grammar & Usage

See All

'Affect' vs. 'Effect'

Using Bullet Points ( • )

Why is '-ed' sometimes pronounced at the end of a word?

What's the difference between 'fascism' and 'socialism'?

More Commonly Misspelled Words
See All

Popular in Wordplay

See All

Top 12 Sophisticated Compliments

Word of the Year 2024 | Polarization

Terroir, Oenophile, & Magnum: Ten Words About Wine

8 Words for Lesser-Known Musical Instruments

10 Words from Taylor Swift Songs (Merriam's Version)
See All

Games & Quizzes

See All
Play Quordle: Guess all four words in a limited number of tries. Each of your guesses must be a real 5-letter word.
Quordle Can you solve 4 words at once?
Play Blossom: Solve today's spelling word game by finding as many words as you can using just 7 letters. Longer words score more points.
Blossom Word Game Pick the best words!
Play Missing Letter: a crossword with a twist. Each of the 25 puzzle words start with a different letter of the alphabet. Which letter is missing?
Missing Letter A daily crossword with a twist
white rubber duck stands out in a row of yellow ducks
Odd Word Out: Synonyms Quiz Figure out which word isn't like the others.