From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishthrow somebody/something ↔ off phrasal verb1 TAKE OFF CLOTHESto take off a piece of clothing in a quick careless way They threw off their clothes and dived in.2 FREE TO DO WHAT YOU WANTto get free from something that has been limiting your freedom In 1845, they finally threw off the yoke of foreign rule.3 BETTER/RECOVEREDif you throw off an illness, you get better from it It’s taken me ages to throw off this cold.4 ESCAPEto escape from someone or something that is chasing you We ran flat out for about half a mile before we could throw them off.5 MAKEto produce large amounts of heat or light The engine was throwing off so much heat that the air above it shimmered with haze. → throw→ See Verb table
Examples from the Corpus
throw off• Instead, slow your responses down to throw the boss off guard.• A woman got up a few rows back, and threw the hood off her head.• Then he throws himself off his chair on to the floor, begins shrieking and beating his fists against the floor.• When Zeier finally found an open man downfield, he threw a pass off the head of umpire Bob Wagner.• He'd thrown the receiver off the hook, but she was haranguing the empty line, demanding he reply.• And what would you have done if Schemichal got hold of you and threw you off the pitch like last night?• Coaches sometimes have to remind him to throw a pitch off the plate every now and then.• Are the Marlins engaging in gamesmanship to throw Atlanta off track? 