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copperx
As an English as a second language speaker, this is the first time in years that a sentence has stumped me. Is this a common construction?

Thanks to a dictionary I now know that "to see off" means "to fend off".

blzrdnofreespch
I wouldn’t consider it common in the sense that it’s used often in every day conversation, but it’s definitely a construction I’ve heard enough to understand without thinking about it, if that makes sense.
bsder
It's a British idiom rather than a general English construct.
sidlls
It's definitely not common in America, where it's more commonly used in, e.g., a parting of ways with a close friend or relation for a journey ("see Johhny off [to the airport for college]").
Noumenon72
That's the sense I understood this in. That the fish doesn't defeat the piranhas or "fight them off", but it can ignore them until they give up because of the armor, and then bid them goodbye.
trengrj
By ”general English” I assume you are meaning American English?
andrewflnr
"general English" reasonably applies to the common subset of the language.
thaumasiotes
As a native speaker of American English, I can assure you that "to see off" does not mean "to fend off"; I had no trouble understanding what the title meant, but I assumed it was an error.

A sidethread comment suggests this is a Britishism.

SideburnsOfDoom
It would be easier to read as " To see off piranha, this fish has strong armour" or "this fish has strong armour, in order to see off Piranha"
justinclift
As a data point, the term seems to be in use in the UK, as I came across it now and again while there.

It's not in common use in Australia though.

pvaldes
Resume: Arapaima scales have interesting properties combining strength, and flexibility in a lightweigth structure
Sharlin
This sort of structure where a hard but brittle material is mated with a softer but elastic substrate is also one of humankind’s great innovations. Through trial and error bladesmiths learned to work steel in a way such that the edge of a tool or weapon blade would harden and better keep its sharpness, while the spine would be made flexible and shatter-resistant. These opposite properties are now known to arise from different crystalline phases, or allotropes, of (carbon-alloyed) iron, in particular martensite and austenite.