Dictionary

offlay en · VERB

Etymology

From off- + lay. Possibly from Middle English oflæien (“to offlay; delay”), from Old English ofleċġan (“to lay down; put away; overlay; cover”), from Proto-Germanic *abalagjaną. Compare also Dutch afleggen, German ablegen.

Meanings

1. (rare, transitive) To offset.
   • That seemed to offlay the sense of "the bastards who did this". Quite often there seemed to me to be a sense of failure to protect one's own from the bastards. 2000, Dorothy Rowe, Friends and enemies - Page 171:
   • The subcontractors themselves outsource work to others in a 'chain of subcontractors' in order further to offlay risks. 1993, Professor Scott M Lash, Professor John Urry, Economies of Signs and Space - Page 178:
   • […] that you are going to control people's lives to the extent that they are able and willing to incur carbon cost which they will then have to offlay. 2007, Climate Change: The Citizen's Agenda, Eighth Report of Session 2006-07, Vol. 2: Oral and Written Evidence

Forms