OFFSET

I. noun Date: circa 1555 1. outset , start , cessation , 2. a. a short prostrate lateral shoot arising from the base of a plant, a small bulb arising from the base of another bulb, a lateral or collateral branch (as of a family or race) ; offshoot , a spur from a range of hills, 3. a horizontal ledge on the face of a wall formed by a diminution of its thickness above, displacement , an abrupt change in the dimension or profile of an object or the part set off by such change, something that sets off to advantage or embellishes something else ; foil , an abrupt bend in an object by which one part is turned aside out of line, something that serves to counterbalance or to compensate for something else, 7. unintentional transfer of ink (as from a freshly printed sheet), a printing process in which an inked impression from a plate is first made on a rubber-blanketed cylinder and then transferred to the paper being printed, ~ adjective or adverb II. verb (-set; -setting) Date: 1792 transitive verb 1. to place over against something ; balance , to serve as a counterbalance for ; compensate , to form an ~ in , intransitive verb to become marked by ~