offing
/ˈɒfɪŋ/US/ˈɔfɪŋ/
offing noun: the area of the sea in which a ship can be seen in the distance from land, excluding the parts nearest the shore, and beyond the anchoring ground. Also the present participle and gerund of off.
Noun
offing (plural offings)
- The area of the sea in which a ship can be seen in the distance from land, excluding the parts nearest the shore, and beyond the anchoring ground.
- to see (a ship) in the offing
- I came to an Anchor in seven fathomes water in the offing to Sea.1610, Samuel Argall, quoted 1625, by Samuel Purchas, Purchas His Pilgrimes, p84
- The distance that a ship at sea keeps away from land, often because of navigational dangers, fog and other hazards; a position at a distance from shore.
- […] till I ſaw the Land tun out a great Length into the Sea, at about the Diſtance of four or five Leagues before me, and the Sea being very calm I kept a large, offing to make this Point; […]1719 May 6 (Gregorian calendar), [Daniel Defoe], The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, […], London: […] W[illiam] Taylor […], →OCLC, page 35
- However, what with the help of this Ebb, and our Boats, we by Noon had got an Offing of 1 1/2 or 2 Miles, yet we could hardly flatter ourselves with hopes of getting Clear […]1768–1771, James Cook, chapter 8, in Captain Cook's Journal, First Voyage, published 1893
- The foreseeable future. Chiefly in the phrase in the offing.
Also used as
offing is also the present participle and gerund of off.
Examples of offing in a sentence
- I seed her reported in the offing this morning; a three years' voyage, and a full ship.1851 November 14, Herman Melville, chapter 3, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London...
- In the offing the sea and the sky were welded together without a joint […]1899 February, Joseph Conrad, “The Heart of Darkness”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume CLXV, number M, New York, N.Y.: The...
- We beat off shore during the whole of the night, when the weather moderated, and at daybreak we found out that we had not gained much offing, in consequence of the current […]1846, Frederick Marryat, The Privateersman, chapter 2:
Forms of offing
| plural | offings |
|---|
Origin of offing
From off + -ing. Attested since before 1600. Early texts also spell the term offin and offen.
Words formed from offing
Words that rhyme with offing
Questions about offing
- What does offing mean?
- Offing means the area of the sea in which a ship can be seen in the distance from land, excluding the parts nearest the shore, and beyond the anchoring ground.
- How do you use offing in a sentence?
- I seed her reported in the offing this morning; a three years' voyage, and a full ship.
- What part of speech is offing?
- Offing is a noun.
- How do you pronounce offing?
- Offing is pronounced /ˈɒfɪŋ/ (UK).
- What is the plural of offing?
- The plural of offing is offings.
Words near offing in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: offing (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-uk-offing.ogg.
Cite this entry: “offing.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/offing. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.