English

Alternative forms

• off-line

Adjective

offline ‎(not comparable)

1. Of a system, currently not connected (generally electrically) to a larger network. For example, a power plant which is not connected to the grid, or a computer which is not connected to the Internet or to any other communications service.

   I saved the web pages so I could read them later offline.

2. Happening in the physical world (the real world) as opposed to on the internet.
   • 2012 April 19, Josh Halliday, “Free speech haven or lawless cesspool – can the internet be civilised?”, in the Guardian:

     Thousands of violent videos are still available on the internet, according to Alexander, who claims they lead to an escalation in offline tensions between rival gangs. "I believe some young people are losing their lives as result of this material on the internet," she said.

Antonyms

• online

Translations

Adverb

offline ‎(not comparable)

1. While offline; with an offline system.
   • 1982, "Hardware News", InfoWorld, volume 4, number 26, page 89:

     The 2000 also emulates Diablo, Qume and NEC letter-quality printers, and has a large enough buffer memory to operate off line from the host computer for an hour.

   • 2000, Syndey S. Chellen, The Essential Guide to the Internet for Health Professionals, Routledge, ISBN 0-415-22747-X, page 124:

     If you want to keep the phone bill down you can set up your Newsreader to operate offline. This means that your Newsreader will fetch new message headers, collect messages you wish to read, and send any responses you may have set up all in one go. You can then read news offline, while you are not running up the phone bill[…].

   • 2008, Vickie Taylor, The Complete Guide to Writing Web-Based Advertising Copy to Get the Sale, Atlantic Publishing, ISBN 1-60138-020-8, page 230:

     Men like to play games online, and they also like to find out about the games that they play offline.

2. (corporate jargon) Outside the current meeting, in a more private setting.
   • 2001, Rosabeth Moss Kantner, Evolve!, Harvard Business Press, ISBN 1-57851-439-8, page 1:

     At meetings, people cut off discussion by saying “Let’s continue that conversation offline,” even though they are meeting face to face, not online; “offline” is a new synonym for “in private,” as though everything public were now on the Internet.

   • 2002, Verne Harnish, Mastering the Rockefeller Habits, SelectBooks, ISBN 1-59079-015-4, page 88:

     The person running the meeting also has the important job of saying “Take it offline.” Whenever two or more people get off on a tangent that doesn’t require everybody’s attention, instruct them to continue the conversation outside the boundaries of the meeting.

   • 2009, Jennifer B. Kahnweiler, The Introverted Leader, Berrett-Koehler, ISBN 978-1-57675-577-8, page 95:

     Offer to discuss the topic offline or table the discussion until things cool down.

Antonyms

• online

Verb

offline ‎(third-person singular simple present offlines, present participle offlining, simple past and past participle offlined)

1. (computing, transitive) To take (a system, etc.) offline; to demote from an active or online state.
   • 1986, Kai Hwang, ‎Steven M. Jacobs, ‎Earl E. Swartzlander, Proceedings of the 1986 International Conference on Parallel Processing (page 462)

     Offlining a memory processor can be accomplished by using the flexible interleaving capability described earlier to interleave segments across subsets of the memory processors, avoiding the faulty one(s).

   • 2008, Sam Alapati, Expert Oracle Database 11g Administration (page 908)

     Traditionally, you fixed the problem by offlining the disk and re-creating the disk's extents on a different disk using redundant extent copies and then dropping the failed disk.

Spanish

Etymology

English

Adjective

offline ‎(invariable)

1. offline