Hi this is Tutor Nick P and this is Verb hrase 106. The verb phrase today is to
fend off someone or something. Okay. Let's take a look at the note here. If someone
fends off a person or thing, he or she tries to stop someone or something from
attacking or harming them. Okay good. Let's continue here. Let's look at a
couple of examples. That old lady tried to fend off a purse snatcher with her
umbrella. So maybe a person that tried to grab her purse and maybe she had an
umbrella and was hitting him with her umbrella. I don't know if it'll work. Good
luck. Maybe it'll stop him. if he didn't completely get the bag away and he's
running away already. If she was able to still hold on have a
tug-of-war and was hitting him with her umbrella. Maybe he just might give up and
leave. Maybe he doesn't really want to fight her. So she might be able to fend
him off with an umbrella. Hopefully. Okay. Let's look at number two.
That young girl was able to fend off a rapist. It's a very serious one because
she sprayed him with mace. You know mace is the type of pepper spray. So maybe he...
Yeah. There was stories I've heard about this in Europe where you know maybe some
guy had her down on the ground and he was already attacking her. She pulled it
out and she was able to spray him. All right. So she was able to fend him off. Then he
you know, ran away after that. Because you hit somebody with mace. That pepper
spray you get them in their eyes. It kind of temporarily blinds them.
All right good. Let's continue. All right. So you know we actually have a kind of a
second use of fend off. So let's look at this one. If someone tries to fend off a
difficult or annoying situation, he or she tries to avoid dealing with it
directly. Let's look at this example. Number one.
here. That politician tried to fend off questions about his scandal by
pretending to be sick. So he tried to get away, so that he could avoid answering
these questions. So he pretend to be sick and then maybe he has an excuse why they
can't ask him. All right. Good. Or number two. She tried to fend off that mosquito
by tracking it down with an electronic racket. Yeah. Maybe that's another way too.
So we try to fend off either a person or a thing or a situation. Okay. Anyway, I
hope you got it. I hope it's clear. Thank you for your time. Bye-bye.