English

Alternative forms

• off-load

Verb

offload ‎(third-person singular simple present offloads, present participle offloading, simple past and past participle offloaded)

1. (transitive) to unload
2. (transitive) to get rid of things, work, or problems by passing them on to someone or something else

   He offloaded the defective car onto an unsuspecting buyer.

3. (transitive, aviation, travel) to deny a person on a standby list due to lack of space.
4. (transitive, aviation, travel) to change a passengers' ticket status from "checked in" to "open", allowing further changes. (This applies regardless of whether the passenger has boarded the aircraft or not).

Translations

Noun

offload ‎(plural offloads)

1. The act of offloading something, or diverting it elsewhere.
   • 2013, Bertrand Dufrasne, ‎Bruno Anderson Barbosa, ‎Peter Cronauer, IBM System Storage DS8870 Architecture and Implementation

     For environments that do not allow FTP traffic out to the Internet, the DS8870 also supports offload of data by using SSL security.

2. (rugby) The act of passing the ball to a team mate when tackled.
   • 2011 September 16, Ben Dirs, “Rugby World Cup 2011: New Zealand 83-7 Japan”, in BBC Sport:

     Toeava went over unopposed to stretch his side's lead but Japan got on the scoreboard on 56 minutes, wing Hirotoki Onozawa intercepting an attempted offload from Slade, who had a rather flaky game, and running in from the All Blacks' 10m line.