fend off

phrasal verb

fended off; fending off; fends off

: to defend oneself against (someone or something)

They succeeded in fending off the attack/attackers.

They have had to fend off allegations of voter fraud.

Examples of fend off in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

After retrieving a top-secret flash drive from the crash, the couple are pulled back into their shadowy past, fending off government operatives determined to retrieve the drive. —Alex Ritman, Variety, 17 May 2024

Village residents were not in a position to fend off the military. —TIME, 15 May 2024

Nebraska's Don Bacon must fend off a tough Republican challenge in November. —Nicole Fallert, USA TODAY, 14 May 2024

One way of achieving this is to file more patents that fend off cheaper copy cats from launching. —Bruce Gil, Quartz, 8 May 2024

Plus, both bags are fully lined to fend off makeup mishaps. —Toni Sutton, Peoplemag, 6 May 2024

Male bass stay close by to fend off the mothers and other predators, but this behavior lends to opportunistic fishing around cover. —Shaye Baker, Field & Stream, 1 May 2024

This physical reaction is commonly associated with a fear response in the animal kingdom — puffing up fur, for example, to fend off predators or keep warm. —Katie Lauer, The Mercury News, 30 Apr. 2024

Alex Garland’s dystopian political action film Civil War about an America torn apart appears to be fending off new vampire pic Abigail at the box office. —Pamela McClintock, The Hollywood Reporter, 20 Apr. 2024