move off

English

Verb

move off (third-person singular simple present moves off, present participle moving off, simple past and past participle moved off)

1. (of a vehicle) To start moving.
   • 1950 April, Two Belfast Correspondents, “The Last Days of the Belfast and County Down Railway”, in Railway Magazine, page 267:

     Driver Cerr spent so long complaining to us about the quality of the coal that we had barely time to get into coach No. 51, the oldest type of third-class six-wheeler, as we moved off.

   • 1964 May, “Automation in the cab—latest SNCF developments”, in Modern Railways, page 336:

     When the large handwheel seen in the illustration of a 68000 class cab is moved from "stop" to "run", the traction circuit contactors are closed and the locomotive moves off with the diesel engine running at idling speed.

References

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