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Showing results for in the offing. Search instead for Enfeoffing.
Synonyms

in the offing

Idioms  

  1. In the near or immediate future; soon to come. For example, Jan was delighted that exams were finished and graduation was in the offing. This expression originally meant “in the part of the ocean visible between shore and horizon”; its figurative use dates from the late 1700s. Also see in the wind.

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

A sustainably higher multiple could be in the offing if the company can go from a slow-growth auto maker in a competitive and cyclical business to a maker of robots.

From Barron's • Feb. 6, 2026

Interviewed on the podcast Top Traders Unplugged, White sketched out the problems facing advanced economies at present and delivered a disconcerting warning of the systemic failure he thinks may be in the offing.

From MarketWatch • Jan. 7, 2026

Long closed to new money, Maple Rock handed some profits this year back to clients, with plans for more distributions in the offing, the people said.

From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 20, 2025

In response to OpenAI's deal spree, there has been some speculation that an AI bubble may be in the offing.

From BBC • Nov. 3, 2025

Other re-forms were in the offing but would be instituted very slowly, “so as to only create a tiny ripple back.”

From "Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing" by Ted Conover

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.