offing

off +‎ ing. Attested since the 1620s. Early texts also spell the term offin and offen.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈɒfɪŋ/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈɔfɪŋ/, /ˈɑfɪŋ/

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• Rhymes: -ɒfɪŋ, -ɔːfɪŋ

offing (plural offings)

1. (nautical) 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

   • 1610, Samuel Argall, quoted 1625, by Samuel Purchas, Purchas His Pilgrimes, p84

     I came to an Anchor in seven fathomes water in the offing to Sea.

   • 1719 May 6 (Gregorian calendar), [Daniel Defoe], The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, […], London: […] W[illiam] Taylor […], →OCLC, page 81:

     September 30, 1659. I, poor miserable Robinson Crusoe, being shipwreck'd during a dreadful Storm, in the offing, came on Shore on this dismal, unfortunate Island, which I call'd the Island of Despair, all the rest of the Ship's Company being drown'd, and my self almost dead.

   • 1851 November 14, Herman Melville, chapter 3, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC, page 15:

     That's the Grampus's crew. I seed her reported in the offing this morning; a three years' voyage, and a full ship.

   • 1899 February, Joseph Conrad, “The Heart of Darkness”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume CLXV, number M, New York, N.Y.: The Leonard Scott Publishing Company, […], →OCLC, part I:

     In the offing the sea and the sky were welded together without a joint […]

2. (nautical) 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.
   • 1719 May 6 (Gregorian calendar), [Daniel Defoe], The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, […], London: […] W[illiam] Taylor […], →OCLC, page 35:

     […] 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; […]

   • 1768–1771, James Cook, chapter 8, in Captain Cook's Journal, First Voyage, published 1893:

     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 […]

   • 1846, Frederick Marryat, The Privateersman, chapter 2:

     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 […]

3. (figuratively) The foreseeable future. Chiefly in the phrase in the offing.

• (nautical range of sight): ken

• in the offing

offing

1. present participle and gerund of off

• goniff