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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

Curious to see the effect of all that Americanness, I drove north from Naha to Makiminato, a place once dominated by American bases, off-base housing and base-adjacent businesses.

From The Wall Street Journal • Oct. 25, 2025

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

From Los Angeles Times • May 23, 2024

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

Self-serving defensive claims and off-base sports analogies will not turn things around.

From Slate • Dec. 8, 2023

While service responsibility for countering off-base discrimination against servicemen was still highly debatable in 1946, the right of men on a military base to protection was uncontestable.

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

Related Words

• erroneous
• inaccurate
• mistaken
• sadly mistaken
• wrong