lead off phrasal verb ( see also ↑ lead )
1 . to start a meeting, discussion, performance etc by saying or doing something:
I’d like to lead off by thanking Rick for coming.
lead off with
The French team led off with two quick goals in the first five minutes.
lead something ↔ off
Hal led the evening off with some folk songs.
2 . lead off (something) if a road, room etc leads off a place, you can go directly from that place along that road, into that room etc
lead off from something
He pointed down a street leading off from the square.
a large room, with doors leading off it in all directions
3 . to be the first player to try to hit the ball in an ↑ inning (=period of play) in a game of baseball