offset
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈɒf.sɛt/
ipa: /ˈɔf.sɛt/
ipa: /ˈɑf.sɛt/
Forms: form: offsets
form: off-set
Etymology: From off- + set, used to construct the noun form of the verb to set off. Compare Middle English ofsetten (“to encumber, harass, beset, besiege”), from Old English ofsettan (“to press, oppress, overwhelm, crush”).
Senses: examples: text: Today's victory was an offset to yesterday's defeat.
text: There were more applicants for situations than vacancies, and nothing better or more congenial to my taste offering, I accepted a place in a Saloon. The salary was $100 per month, which was somewhat of an offset against the peculiarities of the position.
ref: 1861, E. J. Guerin, Mountain Charley, page 39:
glosses: Anything that acts as counterbalance; a compensating equivalent.
qualifier: international trade
glosses: A form of countertrade arrangement, in which the seller agrees to purchase within a set time frame products of a certain value from the buying country. This kind of agreement may be used in large international public sector contracts such as arms sales.
examples: text: Later, Timberlake would tell Playboy that he noticed Ryan's talent from the offset, saying, 'I thought he had charisma that was just beaming, which has turned out to serve him really well as an actor.'
ref: 2017, Nick Johnstone, Ryan Gosling - The Biography:
glosses: A time at which something begins; outset.
examples: text: offset lithographs
text: offset process
topics: media
printing
publishing
glosses: The offset printing process, in which ink is carried from a metal plate to a rubber blanket and from there to the printing surface.
examples: text: An array of bytes uses its index as the offset, of words a multiple thereof.
topics: computing
engineering
mathematics
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
programming
sciences
glosses: The difference between a target memory address and a base address.
examples: text: The raw signal data was subjected to a baseline correction process to subtract the sensor's offset and drift variations.
qualifier: signal analysis
glosses: The displacement between the base level of a measurement and the signal's real base level.
examples: text: There is a small offset between the switch and the indicator which some users found confusing.
glosses: The distance by which one thing is out of alignment with another.
topics: geography
natural-sciences
surveying
glosses: A short distance measured at right angles from a line actually run to some point in an irregular boundary, or to some object.
glosses: An abrupt bend in an object, such as a rod, by which one part is turned aside out of line, but nearly parallel, with the rest; the part thus bent aside.
examples: text: […] [I]nfected tulips are weakened by the viruses that cause the very patterns and swirls that fascinated horticulturists and investors in the first place. Such bulbs tend to dwindle away instead of fattening up and producing offsets.
ref: 2014 September 26, Charles Quest-Ritson, “The Dutch garden where tulip bulbs live forever: Hortus Bulborum, a volunteer-run Dutch garden, is dedicated to conserving historic varieties before they vanish for good [print version: Inspired by a living bulb archive, 27 September 2014, p. G5]”, in The Daily Telegraph (Gardening):
topics: biology
botany
natural-sciences
glosses: A short prostrate shoot that takes root and produces a tuft of leaves, etc.
glosses: A spur from a range of hills or mountains.
topics: architecture
glosses: A horizontal ledge on the face of a wall, formed by a diminution of its thickness, or by the weathering or upper surface of a part built out from it; a set-off.
topics: architecture
glosses: A terrace on a hillside.