OFFING

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does offing mean? 

• OFFING (noun)
  The noun OFFING has 2 senses:

1. the near or foreseeable future

2. the part of the sea that can be seen from the shore and is beyond the anchoring area

  Familiarity information: OFFING used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• OFFING (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The near or foreseeable future

Classified under:

Nouns denoting time and temporal relations

Context example:

there was a wedding in the offing

Hypernyms ("offing" is a kind of...):

future; futurity; hereafter; time to come (the time yet to come)

Sense 2

Meaning:

The part of the sea that can be seen from the shore and is beyond the anchoring area

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural objects (not man-made)

Context example:

there was a ship in the offing

Hypernyms ("offing" is a kind of...):

body of water; water (the part of the earth's surface covered with water (such as a river or lake or ocean))

Holonyms ("offing" is a part of...):

briny; main (any very large body of (salt) water)

 Context examples 

Two vague shadows in the offing showed where the galeasses rolled and tossed upon the great Atlantic rollers.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)