Meaning & use
die off
Last updated
Meanings
phrasephrasal verb
To die one after another until a whole group or population is gone or much smaller.
Grammar: No object: the bees began to die off.
Patterns
- something dies off
- something dies off because of something
Many fish began to die off after the lake warmed.
If the trees die off, the birds that nest there will leave.
The old oaks started to die off during the drought.
nouncountablebiology
A large fall in the numbers of a plant or animal population because many of them die in a short time.
Grammar: Usually written die-off with a hyphen: a mass die-off.
Patterns
- a die-off of something
Scientists studied the die-off of coral on the reef.
A die-off of honeybees worried the local farmers.
The die-off happened within a single week.
Word forms
| third person singular | dies off |
|---|---|
| past tense | died off |
| past participle | died off |
| -ing form | dying off |
Common combinations
- die off quickly
- The seedlings die off quickly in the heat.
- begin to die off
- The leaves begin to die off in autumn.
- a mass die-off
- A mass die-off of fish alarmed residents.
- die off in large numbers
- The frogs died off in large numbers.
- gradually die off
- The old customs will gradually die off.
Synonyms and how they differ
- die out
- Die out suggests a species or tradition disappearing entirely, while die off can describe a big drop without total loss.
- perish
- Perish is more formal and literary, and usually refers to individuals rather than a population gradually shrinking.
- decline
- Decline is gentler and does not say anything has died, only that numbers fall.
- wither
- Wither describes plants drying up and shrinking, not a whole group disappearing.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: die off or die out?
die off vs die out
Die out is used when something disappears completely, such as a species or a language; die off often means a large number died but some remain.
Practice
After the pollution reached the pond, many of the frogs began to ___.
Choose one answer.
'Die off' describes a population dying gradually. 'Die down' means to become less strong, as of a storm, and 'die for' needs an object.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “die off”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.