offlay

English

Etymology

From off- +‎ lay. Possibly from Middle English oflæien (“to offlay; delay”), from Old English ofleċġan (“to lay down; put away; overlay; cover”), from Proto-Germanic *abalagjaną. Compare also Dutch afleggen, German ablegen.

Verb

offlay (third-person singular simple present offlays, present participle offlaying, simple past and past participle offlaid)

1. (transitive, rare) To offset.
   • 1993, Professor Scott M Lash, Professor John Urry, Economies of Signs and Space - Page 178:

     The subcontractors themselves outsource work to others in a 'chain of subcontractors' in order further to offlay risks.

   • 2000, Dorothy Rowe, Friends and enemies - Page 171:

     That seemed to offlay the sense of "the bastards who did this". Quite often there seemed to me to be a sense of failure to protect one's own from the bastards.

   • 2007, Climate Change: The Citizen's Agenda, Eighth Report of Session 2006-07, Vol. 2: Oral and Written Evidence:

     […] that you are going to control people's lives to the extent that they are able and willing to incur carbon cost which they will then have to offlay.

Anagrams

• Offaly, layoff, offaly, lay-off, lay off