Another word for stave off

Quinn lit the large stove to stave off the cold as rain pounded the metal roof above us.

Well, that's one way to stave off passion.

Unfortunately, the southern routes ran into the desert, and the armies were too far to return in enough time to stave off any attack Memon planned in the next fortnight.

Isaac's great aim was to restore the former strict organization of the government, and his reforms, though unpopular with the aristocracy and the clergy, and not understood by the people, certainly contributed to stave off for a while the final ruin of the Byzantine empire.

and Louis VII., and contrived for five years, partly by these means, partly by insincere negotiations with Becket, to stave off a papal interdict upon his dominions.