off
adv.adv. to kill someone. This is a very informal and blunt way to talk about murder, often used in movies or crime stories.
adv. to murder or assassinate an individual. Highly informal and colloquial in register, often associated with underworld or crime-related contexts.
The gang decided to off the witness before the trial.
In the movie, the main character discovers a plot to off the king and take over the throne.
The screenplay was criticized for its reliance on tired tropes, particularly the scene where the antagonist casually orders his henchmen to off a rival without a second thought.
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₂epó Proto-Germanic *ab Proto-West Germanic *ab Old English æf Old English of Middle English of English off From Middle English of, from Old English of, af, æf (“from, off, away”), from Proto-West Germanic ab, from Proto-Germanic ab (“from”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂epo (“from, off, back”). Doublet of of. Cognates Cognate with Scots aff (“away, off”), Saterland Frisian oawe, ou (“from”), West Frisian ôf (“away, off”), Dutch af (“from, off”), German ab (“from, off”), German Low German, Luxembourgish of (“off”), Yiddish אָפּ (op, “off”), Danish, Icelandic af (“from, off”), Faroese, Norwegian Bokmål and Norwegian Nynorsk av (“off”), Swedish af, av (“off”), Gothic 𐌰𐍆 (af, “of, from”); and with Latin ab (“of, from, by”), Ancient Greek ἀπό (apó, “from”), and others.
The verb is transitive and requires a direct object.