off the mark
16
6.5
- idiom
:
equivocado
- Her prediction for the project's success was off the mark, resulting in a missed deadline.
- far off the mark
- so off the mark
- too off the mark
Not slightly off the mark, wildly off the mark.
- Not slightly off the mark, wildly off the mark.
- The timings of stuff is often way off the mark.
- But the third of these enablers, impulse control, seems far off the mark.
- It's at least possible that our alarm over climate is similarly off the mark.
- However, Morgan Stanley in their bear report tells us that the bad news is the earnings estimates are well off the mark as if our forecasts were to be correct.
- Like you've you're so far off the mark of like, sure, do you have to do it?
- And I'm like, guys, I got to be honest, like, like they're so off the mark.
- You you need the woman to sit there and go, Hey, you really off the mark there?
Examples
-
I read yesterday that Locker has been pretty off the mark in Senior Bowl practices so far.
Blog text (7) -
And as it turned out, I wasn't far off the mark.
Fiction book (2000) -
I could be so far off the mark that it's not even funny.
-
Just a bit off the mark.
-
I think your money ball idea may not be that far off the mark.
-
Not slightly off the mark, wildly off the mark.
-
You're way off the mark.
-
We now know that those predictions of depopulation were far off the mark.
Academic text (1997) -
Well, you're a little bit off the mark, but don't worry.
-
The Petulant Pilot's prediction for spring-like weather was a bit off the mark as the wind howled and clouds thickened.
Fiction book (2000)
Synonyms
113
4.3
Not correct or exact, with mistakes
1
7.1
Not accurate or correct
Antonyms
How Accurate
901
3.2
286
3.6
680
3.0
29
3.9
16
6.5
113
4.3
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'not accurate or correct' is directly derivable from combining 'off' (away from) with 'mark' (target/aim): being 'off the mark' literally means away from the target, hence inaccurate. This spatial-to-evaluative composition is a common, cross-linguistic pattern, so a B1 learner who knows the constituents will very likely infer the idiom's meaning.
Etymology
The idiom off the mark comes from aiming at a target: if a shot or arrow lands off the mark, it misses the target, so the phrase means 'not accurate'.