English

Alternative forms

• off-time
• offtime

Noun

off time ‎(countable and uncountable, plural off times)

1. Time when one is not working.
   • 1985, Charles Joyner, Down by the Riverside: A South Carolina Slave Community, ISBN 0252013050, page 127:

     It was not the days of drudgery in the rice fields but the hours of off time that most shaped the contours of slave culture.

   • 2011, J. Leith Harrell, The Peace Officer's Companion, ISBN 1456724940:

     It also robs us of the opportunity get away from the job and decompress during off time.

2. Time when the activity of a business is diminished; off-season.
   • 2011, T. W. Strait, A Ranger's Life: To Park Or Not to Park, That Is the Recreation, ISBN 1462863655, page 45:

     Most would be completed during the “off time” of our year, i.e., when there was minimum usage by tourists.

   • 2013, Douglas Stevenson & ‎Robert Wolenik, Creating PC Video, ISBN 1136042016:

     The computer program allows the cable operator to sell primetime spots for more money than off time.

3. (electronics) The time interval when no current flows.
   • 2007, Seetharaman Ramachandran, Digital VLSI Systems Design, ISBN 1402058292, page 73:

     Usually, a clock waveform used in a system is a square wave. Occasionally, rectangular waveform may also be used. The time period T is the sum of the on time and off time.

   • 2004, Japanese Journal of Applied Physics: Letters - Volume 43, page 197:

     When the off time was 0 s, namely, the illumination is continuous, a black film was deposited.

4. (medicine) Time when the medication for a chronic condition is less effective in controlling symptoms.
   • 2012, Ronald F. Pfeiffer, ‎Zbigniew K. Wszolek, ‎& Manuchair Ebadi, Parkinson's Disease, Second Edition, ISBN 1439807159, page 1047:

     Frequently, the first "off" time is experienced after the longest delay between two doses of medication, which is usually between the last does in the evening and the first does in the morning.

   • 2013, David Burn, Oxford Textbook of Movement Disorders, ISBN 0199609535, page 84:

     Adding an inhibitor of catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT), an enzyme involved in the breakdown of levodopa and dopamine, can help prolong the duration of action of levodopa and reduce OFF time.

5. (racing) The point in time when the official starter signals that a race begins, as distinct from the time the race is scheduled to start (post time).
   • 1958, Sidney O. Raphael, Petition against The State harness Racing Commission, page 75:

     It is suggested that Rule VIII (c) requires that the drivers be on the track 5 minutes before off time, not post time, and that since off time can not be known until the race actually starts, the rule is meaningless.

   • 2009, Eli Schleifer With Robert Temple, The Pilgrims Would Be Shocked: The History Of Thoroughbred Racing in New England, ISBN 146281073X:

     That meant if you didn't bet on the off time posted on the infield board the race went off anyways.

Adjective

off time ‎(not comparable)

1. Alternative form of off-time
   • 2002, Alinde J. Moore, Resilient Widowers: Older Men Speak for Themselves, ISBN 0826114768:

     We do not want to minimize the painful off time feelings experienced by the younger men we interviewed.