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Glite Dictionary
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offing

offing

1 9.9
The part of the sea you can see from the shore beyond where boats anchor
  • noun
  • /ˈɔfɪŋ/
  • Specialized
translation icon : mar abierto
  • We find it more convenient to deliver the goods by transshipping at night, in the offing of harbors where we have friends extending to the customs service and the coast guard.

Examples

  • As the sun set, a cargo ship appeared in the offing, slowly making its way to the harbor.

  • I placed a canvas director's chair close to her chaise, but not within offing distance, and sat where I could see her face.

    Fiction book (1992)

  • We show documents for ports west of Cadiz, and we transship in the offing of Italian ports mostly.

    Fiction book (1995)

  • Carol has to be on the producer's priority list for uninteresting and underdeveloped characters ripe for the next group offing.

    Blog text (22)

  • From the beach, we could see several boats sailing in the offing beyond the buoy line.

  • The captain pointed towards the offing, where the outlines of distant ships were visible on the horizon.

Synonyms

off the coast
vsoffing
85 1.9

In the sea near the shore

is the sea area a little farther out and visible beyond anchoring zones

Antonyms

shore
441 1.0

Land at the edge of a sea or lake

Idioms

in the offing
8 5.6

Likely to happen soon

How Far

main
  • Archaic
9 7.9
offshore
141 3.7
offing
  • Specialized
1 9.9
inshore
1 4.2
shoreline
48 2.7

Surface Forms

offing singular
offings plural

Morphology

offing = (transparent) = off + ing

Clear nominalization from 'off' (meaning at a distance) with the noun-forming '-ing' producing the offshore area. [Postprocessing: moved 'off' from base_words to prefix]

Etymology

Offing comes from the word off meaning 'away from the coast' and was used by sailors for the part of the sea a little way out from shore. So offing now names the area of sea you can see from land beyond the place where ships usually anchor.