Wiktionary
vb. 1 To stand some distance apart from something or someone. 2 (context US English) To prevent any would-be attacker from coming close by adopting an offensive posture. 3 (context nautical dated English) To move away from shore.
Usage examples of "stand off".
Wells, in his trilogy, The Outline of History, The Science of Life and The Work, Wealth, and Happiness of Mankind, is, so far as I know, the only writer who has ever lived who has tried to draw for the rest of us a full picture of the whole world, past and future, everything about us, so we can stand off and get a look at ourselves.
Whereupon, this accomplished swordsman, warning all hands to stand off, once more makes a scientific dash at the mass, and with a few sidelong, desperate, lunging slicings, severs it completely in twain.
He is instead to monitor all starships that are in parking orbit around the planet and stand off.
He could sneak up and lob in a satchel charge, or he could stand off at a distance and hose the objective down with a flame thrower.
Two fortresses should be ample to stand off any Peep battlecruisers which might be hiding out there to come running in and jump on the terminus from which Hanaby had withdrawn, but if there was something bigger and nastier in the offing .