off-base

[awf-beys, of-]

adjective

1. located outside the perimeters of a military base.

   off-base housing for officers.

Word History and Origins

Origin of off-base¹

First recorded in 1935–40

Idioms and Phrases

Wrong, relying on a mistaken premise, as in His description of the accounting system was totally off base. This metaphoric term originated in baseball, where a runner who steps off a base can be put out. [c. 1940]

Example Sentences

Some were wildly off-base; others lined up perfectly with what I’d seen and heard.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

Live Nation says the arguments are off-base and will probably fail in court.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

Senior Airman Roger Fortson, 23, who was based at the Special Operations Wing at Hurlburt Field, was in his off-base apartment in Fort Walton Beach when the shooting happened on May 3.

Read more on Seattle Times

In a paper published Monday in “The Anatomical Record,” an international team of paleontologists, neuroscientists and behavioral scientists argue that Herculano-Houzel’s assumptions about brain cavity size and corresponding neuron counts were off-base.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

Voting rights advocates have argued the elections office’s legal interpretations have been way off-base.

Read more on Seattle Times

Related Words

• erroneous 
• inaccurate 
• mistaken 
• sadly mistaken www.thesaurus.com
• wrong