offtake

present singular third person offtakes · participle present offtaking · past offtook · participle past offtaken

1. transitiveTo take off; take away, remove.

   Of brothers and bairns, where the brightest of earth-joys She had hitherto had: all the henchmen of Finn War had offtaken, save a handful remaining, […]

   1892, Beowulf: An Anglo-Saxon Epic Poem, page 38

   2 more examples

   In this case also we are not informed what the range of water depths was; but, since all distributaries offtaking from this sixty-three miles length of canal were closed during the experiment, and since the capacity of the canal at the lower end was not more than half the capacity at its upper end, we know at least that the water stream must have been very shallow at the upper end of the length of canal under experiment.

   1917, Proceedings - West Pakistan Engineering Congress, volume 5, page 5

   This canal offtook from the River Jumna, near its exit from the Sivalik Hills and flowed a distance of about 200 miles to the Fort of Hansi and the town of Hissar, on the borders of the Rajputana Desert.

   1922, Industrial India, volume 2, page 119

2. transitivebusinessTo take out or remove commodities from a market, usually through purchasing them.

   Obviously, it would be desirable for the parties to the interim offtake agreement to offtake their physical volumes in proportion to their dividend participation.

   1973, Multinational Corporations and United States Foreign Policy

plural offtakes

1. countableuncountableA point or channel of drainage or off-flow; offlet.
2. countableuncountablebusinessThe removal of oil (or an industrial chemical) from a storage facility.
3. countableuncountableAn act of taking off; specifically, the taking away or purchase of goods.
4. countableuncountableSomething taken off; a deduction.