offset

1. (international trade) A form of countertrade arrangement, in which the seller agrees to purchase within a set time frame products of a certain value from the buying country. This kind of agreement may be used in large international public sector contracts such as arms sales.

2. (c. 1555) A time at which something begins; outset.Examples: "Later, Timberlake would tell Playboy that he noticed Ryan's talent from the offset, saying, 'I thought he had charisma that was just beaming, which has turned out to serve him really well as an actor.'"

3. (printing, often attributive) The offset printing process, in which ink is carried from a metal plate to a rubber blanket and from there to the printing surface.Examples: "offset lithographs"; "offset process"attributiveoften

4. (programming) The difference between a target memory address and a base address.Examples: "An array of bytes uses its index as the offset, of words a multiple thereof."

5. (signal analysis) The displacement between the base level of a measurement and the signal's real base level.Examples: "The raw signal data was subjected to a baseline correction process to subtract the sensor's offset and drift variations."

6. (surveying) A short distance measured at right angles from a line actually run to some point in an irregular boundary, or to some object.