the.com/in the offing
Nautical for 'coming soon' — originally the sea you could see but not yet reach.
means Likely to happen soon or arrive in the near future.
from The 'offing' was the part of the sea visible from shore, beyond the anchoring grounds but still within sight — where incoming ships first appeared before making port. A sail spotted in the offing meant a ship was on its way, just not here yet. The phrase drifted ashore from sailors' vocabulary into everyday English, keeping that same sense of something visible on the horizon, approaching but not yet arrived.
- origin
- offing meant visible sea beyond anchorage
- sense shift
- from literal horizon to any near future
- first recorded
- 17th century sailing terminology
- modern use
- means imminent, not merely possible