Meanings
plural offals
- countableuncountableThe internal organs of an animal (entrails or innards), used as food.
All the insides clean and compact, coming out all together. Nick tossed the offal ashore for the minks to find.
1925, Ernest Hemingway, “Big Two-Hearted River Part II”, in In Our TimeSynonyms: fancy meat, variety meat
- countableuncountableA by-product of the grain milling process, which may include bran, husks, etc.
[…] the fragments are broken down and the finer particles are collected by sieving; finally, there is the bolting of the assembled fine fractions, with exclusion of the wheat offal which includes bran and a number of other commercial fractions like red dog and shorts.
1941, Wheat Studies of the Food Research Institute, volume 18, Stanford University, page 962 more examples
1817, John Taylor, Arator; Being a Series of Agricultural Essays Practical and Political in Sixty-One Numbers, Baltimore: John M. Carter, No. 32, Indian Corn, p. 96, https://books.google.ca/books?id=paMBAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false The whole of the corn offal is better food than wheat straw, but its blades and tops are so greatly superiour, that cattle prefer them to hay, and will fatten on them as well.
Our standard wheat flour contains only the endosperm and represents practically a 75 per cent. extraction. The remaining 25 per cent. is known in the trade as grain offal or mill-feed, and is used largely as a concentrated food for live stock, being prized in the feeding of dairy cattle.
1918, Alonzo Englebert Taylor, War Bread, New York: Macmillan, page 75 - countableuncountableA dead body; carrion.
- countableuncountableThat which is thrown away as worthless or unfit for use; refuse; rubbish.
Synonyms & antonyms
nounThe internal organs of an animal (entrails or innards), used as food.
Origin
- Middle Englishoffal
- Englishoffal
From Middle English offal, offall, offalle (“offal, refuse, scrap waste”), equivalent to off- + fall. Cognate with Saterland Frisian Oufal (“offal”), West Frisian ôffal (“offal”), Dutch afval (“waste, refuse”), German Low German Offall (“offal”), German Abfall (“waste, refuse”), Danish affald (“waste, refuse”), Swedish avfall (“waste, refuse”), Old English offeallan (“to cut off”).
More words from Middle English
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Afrikaans afval, afval
- afvalrejected parts of an animal
- afvalanimal's organs as food
Basque errai
- erraianimal's organs as food
Bulgarian животински отпадъци, дреболии
- животински отпадъци (životinski otpadăci)rejected parts of an animal
- дреболии (drebolii)animal's organs as food
Catalan víscera
- vísceraanimal's organs as food
Chinese Mandarin 內臟 /内脏, 下水
- 內臟 /内脏 (nèizàng)rejected parts of an animal
- 下水 (xiàshui)rejected parts of an animal
- 下水 (xiàshuǐ)animal's organs as food
Czech vnitřnosti, droby
- vnitřnostianimal's organs as food
- drobyanimal's organs as food
Danish slagteriaffald, indmad
- slagteriaffaldrejected parts of an animal
- indmadanimal's organs as food
Dutch slachtafval, orgaanvlees
- slachtafvalrejected parts of an animal
- orgaanvleesanimal's organs as food
Esperanto malpuraĵo, tripaĵo
- malpuraĵorejected parts of an animal
- tripaĵoanimal's organs as food
- visceraĵoanimal's organs as food
- buĉruboanimal's organs as food
Finnish teurasjäte, sisäelimet
- teurasjäterejected parts of an animal
- sisäelimetanimal's organs as food
French abats, abats
- abatsrejected parts of an animal
- abatsanimal's organs as food
German Innereien
- Innereienanimal's organs as food
Greek απορρίματα, εντόσθια
- απορρίματα (aporrímata)rejected parts of an animal
- εντόσθια (entósthia)animal's organs as food
Hungarian belsőségek
- belsőségekanimal's organs as food
Icelandic innmatur
- innmaturanimal's organs as food
Indonesian jeroan, dalaman
- jeroanrejected parts of an animal
- dalamanrejected parts of an animal
- viserarejected parts of an animal
- jeroananimal's organs as food
Irish garr, conamar
- garrrejected parts of an animal
- conamaranimal's organs as food
Italian frattaglie
- frattaglieanimal's organs as food
Japanese 臓物, もつ
- 臓物 (zōmotsu)animal's organs as food
- もつ (motsu)animal's organs as food
- ホルモン (horumon)animal's organs as food
Norwegian Bokmål slakteavfall, innmat
- slakteavfallrejected parts of an animal
- innmatanimal's organs as food
Polish odpady, podroby
- odpadyrejected parts of an animal
- podrobyanimal's organs as food
Portuguese miúdo, miúdos
- miúdorejected parts of an animal
- miúdosanimal's organs as food
- cabidelaanimal's organs as food
- fressuraanimal's organs as food
- bofesanimal's organs as food
Romanian măruntaie, potroacă
- măruntaieanimal's organs as food
- potroacăanimal's organs as food
Russian потроха́, требуха́
- потроха́ (potroxá)rejected parts of an animal
- требуха́ (trebuxá)rejected parts of an animal
- потроха́ (potroxá)animal's organs as food
- требуха́ (trebuxá)animal's organs as food
Spanish despojos, menudencia
- despojosrejected parts of an animal
- menudenciarejected parts of an animal
- desperdiciosrejected parts of an animal
- menudenciaanimal's organs as food
Swedish slaktavfall, slaktbiprodukt
- slaktavfallrejected parts of an animal
- slaktbiproduktrejected parts of an animal
- slaktbiprodukterrejected parts of an animal
- inälvsmatanimal's organs as food
- inälvoranimal's organs as food
- inkråmanimal's organs as food
Thai ซากสัตว์, เครื่องใน
- ซากสัตว์ (sâak-sàt)rejected parts of an animal
- เครื่องใน (krʉ̂ʉang-nai)animal's organs as food
Turkish sakatat
- sakatatanimal's organs as food
Rhymes & wordplay
Rhymes with offal
All rhymes →Sounds the same
Cite this entry
offal. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/offal
“offal.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/offal. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “offal,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/offal.
Source: offal on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.