offer

• offre (obsolete)

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈɒfə(ɹ)/, /ˈɔːfə(ɹ)/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈɔfɚ/
• (cot–caught merger, Canada) IPA^(key): /ˈɑfɚ/
• Rhymes: -ɒfə(ɹ), -ɔːfə(ɹ)

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Hyphenation: of‧fer

From Middle English offer, from Old English offrian (“make a sacrifice”) rather than from Old French offre (“offer”), from offrir (“to offer”), from Latin offerō (“to present, bring before”). Compare North Frisian offer (“sacrifice, donation, fee”), Dutch offer (“offering, sacrifice”), German Opfer (“victim, sacrifice”), Danish offer (“victim, sacrifice”), Icelandic offr (“offering”). See verb below.

offer (plural offers)

1. A proposal that has been made.

   What's in his offer?

   • 1898, Winston Churchill, chapter 4, in The Celebrity:

     One morning I had been driven to the precarious refuge afforded by the steps of the inn, after rejecting offers from the Celebrity to join him in a variety of amusements. But even here I was not free from interruption, for he was seated on a horse-block below me, playing with a fox terrier.

2. Something put forth, bid, proffered or tendered.

   His offer was $3.50 per share.

3. (law) An invitation to enter into a binding contract communicated to another party which contains terms sufficiently definite to create an enforceable contract if the other party accepts the invitation.

   His first letter was not a real offer, but an attempt to determine interest.

• make an offer

From Middle English offren, offrien, from Old English offrian (“to offer, sacrifice, bring an oblation”), from Latin offerō (“to present, bestow, bring before”, literally “to bring to”), from Latin ob + ferō (“bring, carry”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰer-, *bʰrē- (“to carry, bear”), later reinforced by Old French offrir (“to offer”). Cognate with Old Frisian offria (“to offer”), Old Dutch offrōn (“to offer”), German opfern (“to offer”), Old Norse offra (“to offer”). More at ob-, bear. Displaced Old English ābēodan from ā- + bēodan (“to command, decree, summon”).

offer (third-person singular simple present offers, present participle offering, simple past and past participle offered)

1. (transitive) To present (something) to God as a gesture of worship, or for a sacrifice.
   • Bible, Exodus xxix. 36

     Thou shalt offer every day a bullock for a sin offering for atonement.

2. (transitive) To place (something) in a position where it can be added to an existing mechanical assembly.
   • 2009, Roger Williams, Triumph Tr2, 3, 3a, 4 & 4a

     The next stage is to remove and replace the top part of the right side lip, and offer the lid to the car to ensure all the shapes and gaps are okay.

3. (intransitive) To propose or express one's willingness (to do something).

   She offered to help with her homework.

4. (transitive) To present in words; to proffer; to make a proposal of; to suggest.

   Everybody offered an opinion.

5. (transitive) To place at someone’s disposal; to present (something) to be either accepted or turned down.

   He offered use of his car for the week.  He offered his good will for the Councilman's vote.

   • 1910, Emerson Hough, chapter II, in The Purchase Price: Or The Cause of Compromise, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, OCLC 639762314, page 0147:

     Carried somehow, somewhither, for some reason, on these surging floods, were these travelers, […]. Even such a boat as the Mount Vernon offered a total deck space so cramped as to leave secrecy or privacy well out of the question, even had the motley and democratic assemblage of passengers been disposed to accord either.

   • 2013 June 28, Joris Luyendijk, “Our banks are out of control”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 3, page 21:

     Seeing the British establishment struggle with the financial sector is like watching an alcoholic […]. Until 2008 there was denial over what finance had become. […] But the scandals kept coming, […]. A broad section of the political class now recognises the need for change but remains unable to see the necessity of a fundamental overhaul. Instead it offers fixes and patches.

6. (transitive) To bid, as a price, reward, or wages.

   I offered twenty dollars for it.  The company is offering a salary of £30,000 a year.

7. (intransitive) To happen, to present itself.
   • (Can we date this quote?) John Dryden

     The occasion offers, and the youth complies.

   • 1749, John Cleland, Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure, Penguin 1985, p.64:

     The opportunity, however, did not offer till next morning, for Phoebe did not come to bed till long after I was gone to sleep.

8. (obsolete) To make an attempt; typically used with at.
   • (Can we date this quote?) Francis Bacon

     I will not offer at that I cannot master.

   • (Can we date this quote?) Roger L'Estrange

     He would be offering at the shepherd's voice.

   • (Can we date this quote?) Jonathan Swift

     without offering at any other remedy

   • 1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling

     Here Jones, after expressing the utmost uneasiness, offered to stop her mouth:—“Hey-day! why sure, Mr Jones, you will let me speak; I speaks no scandal, for I only says what I heard from others […]

9. (transitive) To put in opposition to; to manifest in an offensive way; to threaten.

   to offer violence to somebody

• This is a catenative verb that takes the to-infinitive. See Appendix:English catenative verbs

off +‎ -er

offer (plural offers)

1. (used in combinations from phrasal verbs) agent noun of off
   • 2003, James-Jason Gantt, Losing Summer‎, →ISBN, page 146:

     Once you finally discover yourself a dismember-er, a de-limber, a fucking head-cutter-offer, the most simple of tasks — enjoying a long walk outside, seeing a movie, conversing with a stranger in the library — all become prized and over-inflated moments of elation.

• offre, reffo

offer n (singular definite ofret or offeret, plural indefinite ofre)

1. sacrifice
2. victim

• slagteoffer
• ofre

• audio

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• IPA^(key): /ˈɔfər/

offer n (plural offers, diminutive offertje n)

1. sacrifice
2. victim

• slachtoffer
• offeren

offer

1. first-person singular present indicative of offeren
2. imperative of offeren

offer

1. second-person singular present active imperative of offerō

From Old Norse offr

offer n (definite singular offeret, indefinite plural offer or ofre, definite plural ofra or ofrene)

1. a sacrifice
2. a victim, a casualty

• dødsoffer
• selvmordsoffer

• “offer” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

From Old Norse offr.

• IPA^(key): /ɔfɛr/ (example of pronunciation)

offer n (definite singular offeret, indefinite plural offer, definite plural offera)

1. a sacrifice
2. a victim, a casualty

   Offera var alle drepne på same måten.

   The victims were all killed in the same manner.

• dødsoffer

• “offer” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

From Old Norse offr.

• audio

  (file)

offer n

1. sacrifice
2. victim