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

What's at stake: Cruz was able to fend off a spirited challenge from Democratic U.S. Rep. Beto O’Rourke in 2018, winning by only 2.6 percentage points in state where Democrats have not elected a U.S. senator since 1988. —USA TODAY, 29 Oct. 2024

Redmayne said he had been advised during his training how to potentially use a phone to fend off an attack, which sparked a bit of laughter. —Lisa Respers France, CNN, 28 Oct. 2024

Nation-state election disinformation won't end on Nov. 5 as government officials prepare to fend off a wave of lies about the outcome. —Sam Sabin, Axios, 25 Oct. 2024

While driving forward and backward into the police cars, Johnson attempted to fend off the three officers trying to remove him from the vehicle. —Olivia Rose, The Arizona Republic, 24 Oct. 2024