Offshore

//ɒfˈʃɔː(ɹ)// adj, adv, noun, verb

adj, adv, noun, verb ·Uncommon ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    An area of or portion of sea away from the shore.

    "This problem, so far as the offshores of the United States is concerned, is one that is eminently worthy of the attention of the United States Fish Commission and the support of Congress in its attempt to solve it."

  2. 2
    An island, outcrop, or other land away from shore.

    "The Nationalists see that they have nothing to gain—in fact, a lot to lose—by hanging onto the offshores as military bases."

  3. 3
    Something or someone in, from, or associated with another country.

    "If costs are unequally imposed by governments on their offshores, the government makes the U.S. banking industry less competitive."

Verb
  1. 1
    To move industrial production from one region to another or from one country to another, in order to seek lower business costs, such as labor. transitive

    "The McKinsey Global Institute says that 750,000 American service jobs have been “offshored” out of total U.S. jobs of about 140 million."

Adjective
  1. 1
    Moving away from the shore. not-comparable
  2. 2
    Located in the sea away from the coast. not-comparable

    "an offshore oil rig"

  3. 3
    Located in another country, especially one having beneficial tax laws or labor costs. not-comparable

    "American companies use offshore services for one reason, said Herbert F. Schantz, a consultant in Sterling, Va.: cheap labor."

Adjective
  1. 1
    (of winds) coming from the land wordnet
  2. 2
    at some distance from the shore wordnet
Adverb
  1. 1
    Away from the shore. not-comparable
  2. 2
    At some distance from the shore. not-comparable
Adverb
  1. 1
    away from shore; away from land wordnet

Example

More examples

""Oh, boy..." Al-Sayib sighed. "Well, how much do you need? I've got about 10 grand just sitting in my offshore account.""

Etymology

From off- + shore.

Related phrases

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.