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off·shore | \ ˈȯf-ˈshȯr 
\
\Definition of offshore
(Entry 1 of 3)
offshore
adjectiveoff·shore | \ ˈȯf-ˌshȯr \
\Definition of offshore (Entry 2 of 3)
1 : coming or moving away from the shore toward the water
an offshore breeze
2a : situated off the shore but within waters under a country's control
offshore fisheries
b : distant from the shore — compare inshore
3 : situated or operating in a foreign country
offshore mutual funds offshore banking
offshore
prepositionoff·shore | \ ˈȯf-ˌshȯr \
\Definition of offshore (Entry 3 of 3)
: off the shore of
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Examples of offshore in a Sentence
Adjective
We sailed to an offshore island.
He works on an offshore oil rig.
They opened an offshore bank account.
He traced the money to an offshore investment company.
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Recent Examples on the Web: Adverb Nor’easters are powerful areas of low pressure that develop just offshore from the U.S. East Coast, typically between September and April.
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Fox News, "Nor'easter vs. Alberta Clipper: Here's the difference," 4 Feb. 2020 That area extends offshore from Fort Mason to Ocean Beach on the San Francisco side of the bay, from Sausalito past Point Bonita on the Marin County side, and around Alcatraz Island.
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Bob Egelko, SFChronicle.com, "Group can sue government over ban on commercial fishing in GGNRA, appeals court says," 31 Dec. 2019 The votes come as the Trump administration is reevaluating a plan to sharply expand offshore drilling amid a series of court challenges.
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CBS News, "House approves bill to permanently bar oil drilling off Atlantic and Pacific coasts," 12 Sep. 2019 There, containers would be unloaded onto trucks traveling 37 miles to a port at Amakdedori, then packed onto sea-going barges bound for a large tanker moored more than 10 miles offshore, into which the minerals would be dumped.
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Acacia Johnson, National Geographic, "The risky plan to haul minerals from a mine in the Alaska wilderness," 14 Jan. 2020 This section has the most bullet points overall, but the big ones are about ending offshore drilling and managing international waters.
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Caroline Delbert, Popular Mechanics, "Here's What's in Elizabeth Warren's Blue New Deal," 11 Dec. 2019 California waters, up to 3 miles offshore, are already protected from bottom trawling by state law.
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Peter Fimrite, SFChronicle.com, "Bottom-trawling fishing severely restricted off West Coast starting in January," 18 Nov. 2019 When forecasts for Hurricane Dorian first put the storm’s bullseye on Central Florida, the roar of its winds were still far offshore, but electric utilities spent heavily on out-of-state crews and other preparations.
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Kevin Spear, orlandosentinel.com, "What Hurricane Dorian’s miss cost Florida utilities," 18 Nov. 2019 At portside, two of those rescued, a Libyan and an Ethiopian, told authorities their wives weren’t there, prompting fears that the two women were missing offshore, according to Italian news agency ANSA.
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Washington Post, "World Digest: Nov. 23, 2019," 23 Nov. 2019 Recent Examples on the Web: Adjective Despite the setbacks on U.S. shale, Schlumberger grew its international and offshore businesses, which accounted for two-thirds of the company's $32.9 billion of revenue in 2019.
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Sergio Chapa, Houston Chronicle, "Schlumberger grows global headcount despite U.S. layoffs," 22 Jan. 2020 Dos Santos denied receiving any tax advantages from operating through foreign or offshore companies.
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Ben Hallman, Quartz Africa, "How Western advisers helped an autocrat’s daughter amass and shield a fortune," 19 Jan. 2020 Off Track Debusschere said that LOSCO was making progress before the Deepwater Horizon offshore rig gushed 134 million gallons of crude into the Gulf.
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Joan Meiners, ProPublica, "How Oil Companies Avoided Environmental Accountability After 10.8 Million Gallons Spilled," 28 Dec. 2019 Obama officials who were upset by Apple’s stance on privacy, along with its decision to shelter billions of dollars in offshore accounts and make its products almost exclusively in China, aired those grievances quietly.
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Katie Benner, New York Times, "Barr Asks Apple to Unlock Pensacola Killer’s Phones, Setting Up Clash," 13 Jan. 2020 Bernstein, in rich detail, tracks how law firm Mossack Fonseca helped corporations and wealthy individuals stash their vast funds in offshore accounts, along with the illicit activities of the firm’s many prominent clients and their associates.
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Tyler Aquilina, EW.com, "7 books to read this Oscar season before you see the movie," 21 Nov. 2019 Photographer: Stefan Wermuth/Bloomberg UBS Group AG is set for a Paris retrial in June to fight its conviction and record 4.5 billion-euro ($5 billion) fine for helping wealthy French clients stash undeclared funds in offshore accounts.
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Gaspard Sebag, Bloomberg.com, "UBS Has Four Weeks in June to Fight $5 Billion French Fine," 4 Nov. 2019 According to an October 2017 indictment, the two lobbying firms were paid $2 million from offshore accounts controlled by Manafort for their work on the campaign.
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NBC News, "Justice Department ends investigation of Tony Podesta, Vin Weber without charges," 24 Sep. 2019 Butlers and housekeepers often have the inside scoop on offshore bank accounts and business deals, not to mention the strange and weird fetishes of their employers.
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Annabelle Spranklen, Town & Country, "What It's Really Like to Work at a House Like Downton Abbey Today," 16 Sep. 2019 Recent Examples on the Web: Preposition Apache has pinned high hopes on Suriname after Exxon Mobil started developing huge oil projects offshore of neighboring Guyana.
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Jordan Blum, Houston Chronicle, "Apache, Total announce first oil discovery offshore of Suriname," 7 Jan. 2020 Exxon and Hess have announced at least 6 billion barrels of recoverable resources offshore of Guyana with first production coming online either late this year or in early 2020.
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Jordan Blum, Houston Chronicle, "New Guyana discovery shows success apart from Exxon Mobil," 12 Aug. 2019 Computer models generally project that the storm center should remain far enough offshore the coast of Georgia to limit winds to tropical-storm force (39 to 73 mph) and rainfall totals to 3 to 6 inches.
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Jason Samenow, Anchorage Daily News, "Hurricane Dorian poised to slam the Carolinas after scraping by the coasts of Florida and Georgia," 4 Sep. 2019 Iceland’s hope of finding oil offshore its coast is fading after China and Norway decided to back out of the island nation’s only remaining exploration license.
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Ragnhildur Sigurdardottir, Bloomberg.com, "Iceland’s Oil Dream Is in Peril," 23 Jan. 2018 Hurricane Jose, which had threatened the northern Caribbean a few days after Irma before turning north into the Atlantic, is moving slowly offshore of the central U.S. Atlantic Coast.
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José De Córdoba And, WSJ, "Hurricane Maria Bears Down on Puerto Rico After Battering Dominica," 20 Sep. 2017
See MoreThese example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'offshore.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
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Learn More about offshore
From the Editors at Merriam-Webster
Reshoring
Reshoring
As some factory jobs return to the U.S., a new word has emerged to describe the process
Dictionary Entries near offshore
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Last Updated
8 Feb 2020
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Cite this Entry
“Offshore.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/offshore. Accessed 16 Feb. 2020.
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More Definitions for offshore
offshore
adjectiveEnglish Language Learners Definition of offshore
: moving away from the shore toward the water
: located in the ocean away from the shore
: located in a foreign country
See the full definition for offshore in the English Language Learners Dictionary
offshore
adjectiveoff·shore | \ ˈȯf-ˌshȯr \
\Kids Definition of offshore
(Entry 1 of 2)
1 : coming or moving away from the shore
an offshore breeze
2 : located off the shore
offshore oil
offshore
adverboff·shore | \ ˈȯf-ˈshȯr \
\Kids Definition of offshore (Entry 2 of 2)
: from the shore : at a distance from the shore
He swam offshore. The boat is anchored offshore.
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Time Traveler for offshore
The first known use of offshore was in 1720
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