off the coast
- idiom
- It's an island about six miles off the coast.
- islands off the coast
- miles off the coast
- lies off the coast
But there are these islands off the coast of California.
- But there are these islands off the coast of California.
- That's Dutch Antilles just off the coast of Venezuela.
- It says they want you in the Seychelles, which is off the coast of Madagascar.
- It's this tiny island about four hours off the coast of Cape Town.
- OK, Yeah, but they crash in the island of Catalina off the coast of Los Angeles.
- And actually, as I'm standing here right now, Sebastian is live streaming off the coast of Chile.
- Did you know there are some orca whales that are eating the livers of sharks off the coast of South Africa?
Examples
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Spain, however, had the better right as the islands lay off the coast of Spanish South America.
Fiction book (1991) -
The rescue team was dispatched to the shipwreck located off the coast of Maine.
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Right now, off the coast of California comes this.
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The site was four miles off the coast in 12 feet of water.
Academic text (2006) -
But there are these islands off the coast of California.
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Four months ago, there was a discovery just off the coast of my country.
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Taiwan is just off the coast of mainland China.
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The largest deposits are found in the Arctic off the coast of Russia.
Academic text (2008) -
Fripp Island is one of the sea islands off the coast of South Carolina.
Fiction book (1996) -
The island, about 2 miles long and a mile wide, lies off the coast of Naples, Florida.
Academic text (1996)
Synonyms
At sea away from the land
Toward the land from the sea
The part of the sea close to the land
How Close
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly compositional: 'off' conveys distance away from and 'coast' denotes land beside the sea, so 'off the coast' straightforwardly means located in the sea near the shore. This simple spatial pattern is common across languages and follows standard English prepositional/adverbial combination, so a B1 learner who knows the constituents will readily infer the meaning.
Etymology
Off the coast paints a simple picture: off means away and coast means the land by the sea, so imagine a boat or small island just a little out from the beach. That's why it means 'in the sea near the land'.