in the offing
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
Terry had invested so much in the project that he was damned sure he was going to try and get it home with him.
He shook his head, then shrugged.
British National Corpus sentence via the MAGPIE corpus (CC BY 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-30)
Sources & notes
Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-31; pending editor spot-check.
Common questions
What does “in the offing” mean?
About to happen or expected soon Literally: on the horizon, at sea
Is “in the offing” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.