phrasal verb

• 1Begin a round or hole of golf by playing the ball from a tee.

  ‘we spend ten minutes practising putting before we tee off’

  More example sentences

  • ‘With a three-shot cushion, Tiger Woods tees off at the last hole - and sends his drive straight up the middle of the fairway.’
  • ‘The day began early at the Royal Golf Course where competitors teed off.’
  • ‘Batting in softball, teeing off in golf and hitting a forehand in tennis also require the type of muscle conditioning provided by this exercise.’
  • ‘Last Sunday morning 23 golfers teed off in a nine hole single stroke.’
  • ‘Just as the two lady golfers teed off at the tenth hole, they heard a loud bang and saw the helicopter come down over the beach and fall on the rocks.’

  Synonyms

  sombre, low-spirited, downcast, sad, dejected, depressed, low, gloomy, despondent, dispirited, disheartened, forlorn, woebegone

  1. 1.1 informal Make a start on something.
     More example sentences

     • ‘in November, the Society teed off with their inaugural meeting’
     • ‘Let's tee off to a good start.’
• 2tee someone off, tee off someoneNorth American informal Make someone angry or annoyed.

  More example sentences

  • ‘their attitude really teed me off’
  • ‘Tommy was really teed off at Ernie’
  • ‘It was one of those things that tees you off, and I responded to that.’
  • ‘One thing that really tees me off about the tournament, especially in the early rounds is you can't watch the game that you really want.’
  • ‘So I am teed off at Buster the bunny because this is all his fault.’
  • ‘I wasn't teed off I was exceedingly infuriated.’

  Synonyms

  irate, annoyed, cross, vexed, irritated, exasperated, indignant, aggrieved, irked, piqued, displeased, provoked, galled, resentful

  Origin

  Probably a euphemistic alteration of peed off (see pee).

• 3tee off on someone or somethingUS informal Sharply attack someone or something.

  More example sentences

  • ‘later in the show, he teed off on their indecision’
  • ‘Chang teed off on his opponent's serve’