Both run away and run off mean escape, but is there any difference?
Answer
Run away means you put distance between yourself and the unpleasant thing. It doesn't say whether your escape was successful. It doesn't say whether you're coming back. It doesn't say whether anyone will catch up with you.
Run off means you went somewhere that you cannot be effectively retrieved either because you went someplace hard to reach or because no one knows where you went. It usually implies that you're not coming back. "Run off" can almost always be changed to "run away" without making a statement false.
A specific use of "run away" is actually closer to the meaning of "run off", and that is when a child or teenager runs away from their parents for a long period of time (days, months, years or permanently). The child or teenager is said to be "running away from home" and is referred to as a "runaway".
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/run%20off gives another usage of "run off".
Run off can refer to causing someone else to run off.
- "I ran off the intruder by chasing him and throwing rocks at him".
- "The intruder ran off when I chased him and threw rocks at him".
Both sentence are good and mean pretty much the same thing.
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