Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Waste parts, especially of a butchered animal.
- n. Refuse; rubbish.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. That which falls off, as a chip or chips in dressing wood or stone; that which is suffered to fall off as of little value or use.
- n. Especially Waste meat; the parts of a butchered animal which are rejected as unfit for use.
- n. Refuse of any kind; rubbish.
- n. In the fisheries: Small fish of various kinds taken in seines among larger or more valuable kinds, and thrown away or used for manure, etc.
- n. Low-priced and inferior fish: distinguished from prime. Fish caught with the trawl average one fourth prime and three fourths offal.
- Waste; refuse: as, offal wood.
Wiktionary
- n. The rejected or waste parts of a butchered animal.
- n. The internal organs of an animal other than a bird, these organs being used as food.
- n. A dead body.
- n. Carrion.
- n. That which is thrown away as worthless or unfit for use; refuse; rubbish.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. The rejected or waste parts of any process, especially the inedible parts of a butchered animal, such as the viscera.
- n. A dead body; carrion.
- n. That which is thrown away as worthless or unfit for use; refuse; rubbish.
WordNet 3.0
- n. viscera and trimmings of a butchered animal often considered inedible by humans
Etymologies
- From Middle English offal ("offal, refuse, scrap waste"), possibly from Old Norse affall ("offal"), or from Middle English of- + fal(l), equivalent to off- + fall. Cognate with Danish affald ("waste, refuse"), Swedish avfall ("waste, refuse"), Dutch afval ("waste, refuse"), German Abfall ("waste, refuse"), Old English offeallan ("to cut off"). More at off, fall. (Wiktionary)
- Middle English : of-, off (from Old English, from of; see apo- in Indo-European roots) + fal, fall. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“The term offal which, unfortunately, sounds like "awful" comes from "off fall" - the parts that fell off the butcher's table, or an animal's organs, entrails and extremities.”
“The term "offal" which, unfortunately, sounds like "awful" comes from "off fall" - the parts that fell off the butcher's table, or an animal's organs, entrails and extremities.”
“Kristen, the Japanese for vegetarian used here was 菜食主義, saishokushugi, which I think carried a definite “vegetables only”, although I have noticed when I use the katakana vegetarian it usually gets understood as “no identifiable meat chunks”, so even offal is OK!”
“In some areas, offal is increasing kelp gull populations with a corresponding increase in the level of predation on penguin eggs and chicks, thereby lowering reproductive success.”
“It was better than it sounds, though probably an acquired taste for those with the "oh my god, offal is awful" mindset.”
“It seems only polite to the animal you've killed," says Fergus Henderson, the legendary London chef widely credited with rescuing offal from the culinary gutbucket, and the author of The Whole Beast: Nose to Tail Eating (Ecco Press), a cult-classic cookbook that just recently became available in the United States.”
“They exist on the offal from the village abattoir.”
“And when they are dead and dust, which will be shortly, other fools will talk bloody revolution as they gather offal from the spittle-drenched sidewalk along Mile End Road to Poplar Workhouse.”
“Doomed to be unfairly overlooked by pundits beholden to bigger-label offal, this cover set of country and Americana tunes that have influenced Rodriguez has a tastiness and sweetness that's rare for a Sheryl Crow chaser.”
“The word offal-or variety meats-actually comes from the simple but direct description”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘offal’.
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Test Prep or Just for fun
Building a list for standardized test prep or just for learning some new words! Please add any words that you feel are important for the SAT/GRE/GMAT etc...
throng, morass, parley, facile, kismet, strife, jetsam, carrion, annex, harbinger, vestige, surreptitious and 575 more...
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IMCO - EU nomenclature
includes words of the "Prodcom list"
abaca, abdominal, abrasive, absorbent, absorber, accelerator, accessory, account book, accumulator, acebutolol, acetaldehyde, acetamide and 4515 more...
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Meat Parts: the Cuts, the Innards, an...
T-bone - Sounds good!
Shoulder - Alright.
Liver - Fine.
Sweetbread - Okay.
Gizzard - Pushing it.
Brains - What?!wing, wedge bone sirloin, veal, umbles, tri-tip, tripe, triangle steak, tournedo, top sirloin, top loin, tongue, thigh and 147 more...
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nschotten's list
A list of words.
fecundity, atavistic, steatopygous, demiurge, sufflaminandus, occiput, trenchant, hobnails, soft-pedal, parsimony, fatuous, ratiocination and 28 more...
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Blood Meridian
scullery, Leonid, parricide, boll, boatswain, walleyed, divest, diffident, rookery, coiffure, heady, garish and 177 more...
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Unwanted matter
gangue, dross, slag, scoria, refuse, trash, cinder, ashes, leavings, recrement, debris, waste and 37 more...
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Forgettables
Words with meanings I just can't seem to remember, no matter how many times I look them up.
esoteric, allegorical, zeitgeist, ersatz, stalwart, orthogonal, offal, peripatetic, definiendum, panacea, gregarious, verticals and 4 more...
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Hmm
Noteworthy, but why?
offal, Guadalupe, enigma, tickle, armada, cognito, spread, caprae, ovolo, homoiconicity, eunoia, Alli and 6 more...
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meaty
sarcasm, carnal, flesh, fleshly, interlard, offal, sarcoma, meatspace, carnivorous syndrome, protocarnivorous, paracarnivorous, subcarnivorous and 32 more...
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Words That Mean Things
I found most of these words in books! That means they MUST be good.
flinders, periplus, palaver, midden, cadge, legerdemain, flense, lapidary, geas, bailey, susurration, satoris and 128 more...
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Valuseless
Of low worth or little importance.
Unwanted matter by drusky is a nice, related list.trivial, cheap, inutile, ineffectual, dross, floccinaucinihili..., gimcrack, frippery, invalidated, drivel, otiose, tripe and 91 more...
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wakcy's Words
apocalypse, interlude, drome, absolution, atrocity, ruse, pristine, mason, reparable, deteriorate, pyramid, hipster and 283 more...
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Good Words
fenestering, cetic, immanent, quickening, archetypal, shibboleth, soma, wetware, heritable, Apotheosis, halcyon, cellar door and 482 more...
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awesome foodie snob terms
for those who like to hear themselves talk instead of just enjoy dinner
umami, unctious, cloying, charcuterie, offal, delectable, redolent, saccharine
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Vocabulary
Words I come across while reading.
talus, echelon, onanistic, cabochon, avocation, charnel, moue, portentous, prolixity, astringent, hoary, patina and 165 more...
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ADW2
nudnik, temper, intercalate, cleave, scowl, chapfallen, malapropos, disport, annals, paean, paradisiacal, whet and 362 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for offal.
bilby Well said, logie! Aug 19, 2008
super-logos Truly awful. Aug 18, 2008
bilby "Stark reached out, not physically, but with his mind, and seized that disappearing tail of Thad's mental probe. In the eye of Stark's own mind it looked like a worm, a fat white maggot deliriously stuffed with offal and decay."
- 'The Dark Half', Stephen King. Dec 31, 2007