square off

English

Verb

square off (third-person singular simple present squares off, present participle squaring off, simple past and past participle squared off)

2. (Canada, US) To get ready for a confrontation (debate, argument, fight).
   • 1984, Daniel Petrie Jr., Beverly Hills Cop, spoken by Axel Foley (Eddie Murphy), Paramount Pictures:

     Hey, man, don't square off on me with some bullshit.

   • 2019 October 18, Thomas Meaney, “When James Baldwin Squared Off Against William F. Buckley Jr.”, in New York Times‎^[1]:

     When James Baldwin Squared Off Against William F. Buckley Jr. [title]

   Synonym: square up

   Antonym: stand down

4. (industrial design) To increase the boxiness of (a design).

   After the aeronautically inspired curvaceous designs of the 1930s and 1940s, many American automotive designs of the 1950s through 1970s were somewhat more squared off.

   Antonym: round off

Further reading

• “square off”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.