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• off-base
  off-base

  adjective

  located outside the perimeters of a military base.
• off base
  off base

  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]

off-base

American  

[awf-beys, of-] / ˈɔfˈbeɪs, ˈɒf- /

adjective

1. located outside the perimeters of a military base.

   off-base housing for officers.

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off base Idioms  

1. 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]

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Etymology

Origin of off-base

First recorded in 1935–40

Example Sentences

McDonald are not off-base when they say that Mahmoud establishes their right to send their kids to school unvaccinated.

From Slate • Dec. 9, 2025

Ms. Lee is equally off-base, delivering her lines with a mix of sangfroid and sarcasm as if C-suite officers are used to getting chased around by super-killers from another domain.

From The Wall Street Journal • Oct. 9, 2025

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

From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 25, 2025

The contamination — detected in the early 1980s — was blamed on a poorly maintained fuel depot and indiscriminate dumping on the base, as well as from an off-base dry cleaner.

From Seattle Times • Jan. 31, 2024

Runge, Carlisle P. and the National Guard, 518-19; and off-base discrimination, 502, 506n, 532, 534-35; and racial reform directives, 511-13, 515.

From Integration of the Armed Forces, 1940-1965 by MacGregor, Morris J.

Related Words

• erroneous
• inaccurate
• mistaken
• sadly mistaken
• wrong