| 释义 |
offing|ˈɒfɪŋ, ˈɔː-|
Also 7 offen, 7–9 offin.
[f. off adv. + -ing1.]
1. Naut. The part of the visible sea distant from the shore or beyond the anchoring ground.
1627Capt. Smith Seaman's Gram. ix. 44 The Offing..is the open Sea from the shore, or the middest of any great streame is called the Offing. 1659D. Pell Impr. Sea 328 Yonder's ships in the Offin of the Sea. 1666Lond. Gaz. No. 75/2 At Two this day..the Generals discovered Trump..in the Offen. 1796Log of ‘Captain’ 26 June in Nicolas Disp. Nelson (1846) VII. p. lxxxix, Found at anchor His Majesty's Ship the Inconstant, the Gorgon and Sincere, with a Convoy in the Offing. 1860Maury Phys. Geog. Sea §127 In the offings of the Balize, sometimes as far out as a hundred miles or more from the land, puddles or patches of Mississippi water may be observed on the surface of the sea.
2. Naut. Position at a distance off the shore. Esp. in phrases, as to gain, get, keep, make, take an offing.
1688R. Holme Armoury ii. 31/1 An Offen or Offing is to be out in the open Sea from the shore-ward. 1703W. Dampier Voy. III. 119 By Nine a Clock at Night we had got a pretty good Offin. 1748Anson's Voy. i. viii. 83 By noon we had gained an offing of near twenty leagues. 1861Smiles Engineers II. vii. viii. 218 A sailing vessel..could lie out upon either tack, and make an offing. 1883Clark Russell Sea Queen II. ii. 21 My father had..kept so wide an offing that the English shores were but little more than a cloud upon the distant water.
3. in the offing: nearby, at hand, in prospect, likely to happen in the near future; (in quot. 1779, exceptionally, in the distant future).
1779J. Wedgwood Let. 30 May (1965) 234, I hope soon to say as far as 30 inches, perhaps ultimately up to 36 inches by 24, but that is at present in the offing. 1914T. Dreiser Titan xvii. 139 The possibility of another woman equally or possibly better suited to him was looming in the offing. 1942D. Powell Time to be Born (1943) x. 239 Somehow it didn't seem like real love without a husband in the offing. 1949N. Mitford Love in Cold Climate i. v. 57 That look of concentration which comes over French faces when a meal is in the offing. 1970G. F. Newman Sir, You Bastard viii. 241 Number six could be afforded if he got promoted, but promotion wasn't in the offing. |
