How to Use off-the-record in a Sentence

off-the-record

adjective
Definition of off-the-recordnext
Synonyms for off-the-recordnext
  • The first is stealthy, an off-the-record session with the Round Table, a group of government, academia, and industry types.
    — Steven Levy, WIRED, 5 Sep. 2023
  • At the resort, Thomas gave a speech at an off-the-record conservative conference.
    — Justin Elliott, Fortune, 18 Dec. 2023
  • Those same sources say liberties were taken with the Atlantic piece, including that key off-the-record details and quotes were used on the record.
    — Tatiana Siegel, Variety, 25 July 2023
  • Email address: At the resort, Thomas gave a speech at an off-the-record conservative conference.
    — Justin Elliott, ProPublica, 18 Dec. 2023
  • The comments were alleged to have happened in an off-the-record conference in chambers, so they weren’t recorded, nor was a transcript produced.
    — Madeline Buckley, Chicago Tribune, 29 June 2023
  • The documents, or portions of them, were also shared with several reporters on an off-the-record basis.
    — Tracy Wang, Rolling Stone, 28 Oct. 2023
  • Odds are, though, that Israeli authorities won’t soon release evidence to back up any off-the-record charges that Arouri was tied to the three teens’ kidnapping and murder.
    — Matthew Levitt, Foreign Affairs, 9 July 2014
  • In her off-the-record remarks that day, the vice president made a passing reference to the 34 individuals who once lived on the property against their will.
    — Robert Draper, New York Times, 12 Apr. 2024
  • The situation has reached a strange netherworld of off-the-record confirmations and denials where one set of sources says one thing and another says the opposite, and most likely no one is telling the whole truth.
    — Jem Aswad Variety Entertainment News Service, al, 23 Aug. 2023
  • But when the conversation slides into off-the-record, her hands flutter in front of her, moving rapidly from tucking a strand of straight hair behind her ear to adjusting the Libra ring on her hand.
    — Ct Jones, Rolling Stone, 19 June 2023
  • Our conversations are studded with long, off-the-record interjections.
    — Seyward Darby, Longreads, 12 June 2024
  • The heated exchange focused on whether prosecutors could have an off-the-record discussion with their own FBI witness about the use of confidential informants.
    — Quinn Owen, ABC News, 23 Feb. 2023
  • The recent surge of Norwegian literary and film exports has helped usher the capital out of the shadows of neighboring Copenhagen (broadly worshipped) and Stockholm (lots of off-the-record comments about Stockholm).
    — Sloane Crosley, Travel + Leisure, 1 July 2023
  • The waves of worry emanating from the industry—through columns by insiders, off-the-record hand-wringing by executives, and the like—only sometimes acknowledged that 2024 was going to be an awkward bridge year for films.
    — David Sims, The Atlantic, 25 June 2024
  • In contrast, the modern ombuds is an independent, confidential, impartial, and off-the-record resource for today’s workers.
    — Anna Oakes, Quartz, 5 May 2023
  • Speculation has swirled around the site of a Hashed al-Shaabi militia facility after a senior administration official mentioned it during an off-the-record briefing.
    — Rich Lowry, National Review, 4 Feb. 2024
  • But the folks in one Foggy Bottom neighborhood who convened in their alley found something: an intimacy and kinship that is rarefied in this off-the-record, don’t-use-my-name, I-can’t-compromise-my-security-clearance pocket of Washington.
    — Petula Dvorak, Washington Post, 13 Apr. 2023
  • Other trips to the nation’s capital included an exclusive, off-the-record dinner for the Alfalfa Club, a social organization of politicians and corporate leaders, on Jan. 28.
    — Sam Janesch, Baltimore Sun, 30 Aug. 2023
  • The last week of silence, off-the-record background briefings, and vague and contradictory statements from spokesmen and low-ranking officials has only served to sow confusion, mistrust, and fever-swamp conspiracy-theorizing.
    — The Editors, National Review, 16 Feb. 2023
  • In quiet conversations and off-the-record gatherings, Democratic officials frequently acknowledge their worries about Biden’s age and sagging approval ratings.
    — Lisa Lerer, BostonGlobe.com, 17 Sep. 2023
  • Her leadership has been instrumental in halting off-the-record intergovernmental meetings.
    — Chicago Tribune, 7 Mar. 2023
  • During an off-the-record period of an evidence suppression hearing in which the defense was to argue the defendant did not voluntarily waive his right not to participate in a custodial interview, Brewer attempted to get the judge’s attention.
    — Emerson Clarridge, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 30 May 2024

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'off-the-record.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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