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Synonyms

off-base

American  
[awf-beys, of-] / ˈɔfˈbeɪs, ˈɒf- /

adjective

  1. located outside the perimeters of a military base.

    off-base housing for officers.
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]

Etymology

Origin of off-base

First recorded in 1935–40

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.

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

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

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

From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 25, 2025

Senior Airman Roger Fortson, 23, died at his off-base residence, the U.S.

From Seattle Times • May 7, 2024

He also took up the question of whether to provide off-base integrated schooling, balancing the difficult problem of protecting the civil rights of federal employees against the educational advantages of a state-sponsored education system.

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

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.