etymologymeaningphrasal-verbsverbs
I've noticed that some business people (generally management types) have started to use the expression "cover off" to mean "cover".
E.g.
Can you cover off agenda item 3 for me?
or
Not only will Scott cover off some of the new stuff…
See: https://sites.google.com/a/codecampsa.com/home/speakers/scott-barnes
Where has this come from?
The off in those particular verb phrases is used as an adverb. The meaning I'll take from wikipedia:
In a direction away from the speaker or object.
He drove off in a cloud of smoke.
Into a state of non-operation; into a state of non-existence.
Please switch off the light when you leave.
So in the case of jerk off we're speaking of a jerking motion away from the ahem "object". Jack off is just a bowdlerized version of the phrase. Get off usually means to get away from (so that you're no longer on top of) something or someone, or more metaphorically to experience excitement or orgasm. In those instances, it's evoking really the "out of body" experience.
You could also interpret the meaning of off in get off to be sense 2: you're "going until you're finished."
The person who wrote about hammering a socket onto a locking lug and popping it off probably should have more precisely referred to locking lug nuts, which is what the original poster meant by locking lugs. Here are pictures (from alltradetools.com, jegs.com, and elementauto.com) of a small socket set and several kinds of locking lug nuts:
Note that sockets are made to fit fairly closely onto certain sizes of nuts. The reason for hammering a socket on is to force a slightly-too-small socket onto the locking lug. Apparently that will work on some of the locking lug nuts shown above, but some will be immune to that approach.
Once the socket is firmly attached to the lug nut, by applying enough torque to the socket (via a cheater bar) one can break the lock, or break the lug the lug nut is screwed onto; ie can “pop off” the nut.
Best Answer
I heard this for the first time yesterday at a management briefing on the east side of the Atlantic. It seems cover isn't dynamic enough on its own.
Google seems to indicate it's only a year or two old.
I agree with @Daniel that the Microsoft example is probably using 'cover off' to mean unveil (as in 'take the cover off') because the context is reserving 'cover off' for the new stuff. But this would certainly be a novel use of 'Cover Off' in BrE at least.
My guess is that techies started using 'Cover Off' as a shorthand for 'take the cover off' in some technical contexts and then as a metaphor for unveil. Management types misheard this as a novel and thrusting way of saying 'cover' and ran with it.
It's particularly prevalent in MSDN blogs in both senses. Googling "Cover Off" with Sharepoint yields what looks to me like a significant no. of hits in the 'cover' sense. I am tempted to call it microspeak/sharpoint.