offload
Học thuậtThân thiện
The workers offload several heavy wooden crates from the back of a large delivery truck.
Definition
- Verb (transitive):
- To remove a load or cargo from a vehicle, container, or person. This is the primary physical meaning, referring to the act of unloading goods or a burden.
- To transfer (data or a task) to another device or system, especially to free up resources. This is a figurative and technical meaning, commonly used in computing and business contexts.
Usage and Examples
Verb (Physical Unloading):
- The workers will offload the cargo from the ship at dawn.
- We need to offload these boxes before the truck can leave.
- She was grateful to offload her heavy backpack.
Verb (Transferring Data/Task):
- The smartphone can offload infrequently used apps to save storage space.
- To improve performance, the main server offloads some computational tasks to a secondary processor.
- The manager decided to offload the administrative work to an assistant.
Advanced Usage
- "Offload onto (someone)": To give an unwanted task, responsibility, or problem to another person.
- He always tries to offload the difficult clients onto his colleagues.
- "Offload from (something)": To remove from a specific source or location.
- The data was offloaded from the old server to the new cloud storage.
Variants and Related Words
- Offloading (noun/gerund): The process or act of offloading.
- The offloading of the shipment took three hours.
- Unload (verb): A close synonym for the physical meaning of removing a load. ("Offload" can sometimes imply a more specific or deliberate transfer than "unload").
Synonyms
- Unload, Discharge, Remove, Transfer, Shift, Dump (informal, often for responsibilities).
Related Phrasal Verbs/Constructions
- Offload something (on/onto somebody): As shown in "Advanced Usage," this construction specifically means to pass a burden to someone else.
- He offloaded his old car on me for a very low price.
- Offload something (from something): Specifies the source from which something is removed.
- They offloaded the furniture from the moving van.
Related Idioms/Expressions
- To palm something off (on someone): An informal idiom similar to "offload onto," meaning to get rid of something unwanted by giving it to someone else, often deceptively.
- He tried to palm off his old laptop on a new intern.
The workers offload several heavy wooden crates from the back of a large delivery truck.
Verb
- take the load off (a container or vehicle)
- unload the truck
- offload the van
- transfer to a peripheral device, of computer data