live off

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live off (third-person singular simple present lives off, present participle living off, simple past and past participle lived off)

1. (idiomatic, transitive) To depend on financially.
2. (idiomatic, transitive) To survive by consuming only a certain thing or things.

   Synonym: live on

   When I was a student, I lived off baked potatoes.

   • 1985, “World Without Warning”, in Pressure Points, performed by Anne Clark:

     I live off nothing in this world / Except the thick grey air that chains itself / Swirls all around and engrains itself