settings

Keeping Up Appearances vocabulary

2 nautical terms (boats, equipment, etc.)

< select a category

ALL

nautical

This page requires javascript.

help & settings

[x]

display help icons

show definition by default

show uses by default

offing: tags: [nautical]

► definition

Definition:

1. a distance from shore that ships keep to avoid dangers, such as shoals and other hazards
2. the region of the sea from which ships can be seen, beyond the anchoring grounds but before the ships are obscured by the Earth's curvature.
3. (figuratively) by extension, shortly in the future

► uses

Uses:

I, poor miserable Robinson Crusoe, being shipwrecked during a dreadful storm in the offing, came on shore on this dismal, unfortunate island, which I called The Island of Despair;

Daniel Defoe. Robinson Crusoe.

---

In the offing the sea and the sky were welded together without a joint, and in the luminous space the tanned sails of the barges drifting up with the tide seemed to stand still in red clusters of canvas sharply peaked, with gleams of varnished sprits.

Joseph Conrad. The Heart of Darkness.

---

Hyacinth: Richard, with a second home in the offing we're bound to be the center of attention.

BBC. Keeping Up Appearances: Looking at Properties (1993)

---

I felt very much like General MacAuliffe at Bastogne, sighting Patton’s Third Army in the offing.

Diana Gabaldon. Outlander (1991)