Off the mark meaning in English

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Definition

to be (way) off the mark: to be (very) wrong, mistaken, incorrect idiom

Pronunciation examples

UK: Your guess was way off the mark.

US: He is way off the mark when he says we're lazy.

Examples

"Brent : Again, Enriqué, you're way off the mark."
"In any case, to respond to your remark, yes our forecast was a bit off the mark."

Exercise 1

In this dialogue, Bruno uses the expression off the mark.

In which of the following sentences is "off the mark" used correctly?

There may be more than one correct answer!

The weather lady was really off the mark today: she predicted a sunny day, but instead we had a snowstorm.

My grandfather has really gone off the mark: he told me he was hearing the voice of Napoleon telling him to invade Canada.

He was really off the mark when he suggested that we sell all our Moogle stock years ago.

Fur coats are terribly off the mark in today's fashion context.

In this dialogue, Bruno uses the expression off the mark.

In which of the following sentences is "off the mark" used correctly?

There may be more than one correct answer!

The weather lady was really off the mark today: she predicted a sunny day, but instead we had a snowstorm.

This is a correct choice. To be "off the mark" is to be wrong; the weather lady was very, very wrong! In this meeting, Bruno admits that his sales predictions for this quarter were "off the mark", meaning that they were wrong or different than what he predicted. "To be off the mark" is a common idiom in both British and American English.

My grandfather has really gone off the mark: he told me he was hearing the voice of Napoleon telling him to invade Canada.

This is an incorrect choice. "To be off the mark" does not mean to go crazy. ("To be off your rocker", however, does!) In addition, you can only "BE off the mark", not "GO off the mark".

He was really off the mark when he suggested that we sell all our Moogle stock years ago.

This is a correct choice. To be "off the mark" is to be wrong, "off target", or inaccurate. Given that Moogle stock is worth a lot of money, the suggestion to sell before it increases in value is not at a smart idea, and therefore the suggestion of selling it years ago, was "off the mark".

Fur coats are terribly off the mark in today's fashion context.

This is an incorrect choice. To be "off the mark" does not mean to be "out of style", "unfashionable", "unpopular" or "inappropriate".

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