How to Use off-the-shelf in a Sentence

off-the-shelf

adjective
Definition of off-the-shelfnext
Synonyms for off-the-shelfnext
  • Instead of burning lots of cash to reinvent the wheel, use an off-the-shelf product.
    — Expert Panel®, Forbes, 20 Apr. 2023
  • That high barrier keeps many parks going back to off-the-shelf thrill rides.
    — Robert Niles, Orange County Register, 5 Apr. 2024
  • More and more hardware and services are available on an off-the-shelf basis.
    — IEEE Spectrum, 24 Mar. 2023
  • Tray mounting is a simple method that is used in most off-the-shelf 60 percent keyboards.
    — Henri Robbins, WIRED, 25 Jan. 2024
  • Bialas explained there are two kinds of retinol: prescription-strength and off-the-shelf products.
    — Amber Sayer, Health, 21 Sep. 2023
  • Trillin would never reach for such off-the-shelf and impolite verbiage.
    — Dwight Garner, New York Times, 22 Jan. 2024
  • More standard options range from $25 to $65 per square foot, with some off-the-shelf versions costing even less.
    — Alyssa Longobucco, House Beautiful, 22 Feb. 2023
  • Now, with electric motors and batteries, the most off-the-shelf commuter car can waft with the serenity of a Packard with a straight-eight.
    — Dan Neil, WSJ, 16 Mar. 2023
  • Its suspension is custom-tuned for the Tacoma and isn't available as an off-the-shelf product.
    — Kristin Shaw, Ars Technica, 18 Dec. 2023
  • In spite of this, off-the-shelf CAR T therapy may still be vastly prohibitive to most who need it.
    — William A. Haseltine, Forbes, 23 Feb. 2023
  • On the downside, both off-the-shelf and DIY pinhole cameras use film or photographic paper.
    — IEEE Spectrum, 27 Aug. 2023
  • The world is not short on off-the-shelf malware, and code written for the same purpose by ChatGPT is not any better than the current offering.
    — Ryan Kalember, Forbes, 27 Mar. 2023
  • The vehicle was built in part by using off-the-shelf components, including the controller.
    — Nate Trela, USA TODAY, 28 June 2023
  • After a mistake with the shower tile order (which would have added time and money to fix), the couple wound up buying an off-the-shelf, beige option from Home Depot.
    — Sophia Solano, Washington Post, 26 Mar. 2024
  • This ends years in which the US Army struggled to find a quadcopter that works in the field, but didn’t have the risks associated with being an off-the-shelf toy pressed into military use.
    — Popular Science, 29 Nov. 2023
  • That’s no mean feat considering that much of the 4-pound (1.8-kilogram) chopper was built using off-the-shelf smartphone processors and cameras.
    — Ashley Strickland, CNN, 14 Apr. 2023
  • At first, Kyiv was mostly using off-the-shelf equipment, either for surveillance or ingeniously adapted on the ground to drop small bombs.
    — Vasco Cotovio, CNN, 2 Apr. 2024
  • The fingertip sensor, made from off-the-shelf electronics, is installed on an existing prosthetic in a few hours.
    — Cameron Pugh, The Christian Science Monitor, 14 Mar. 2024
  • The company is one of several that offers turnkey custom design and installations, as well as off-the-shelf packages to DIY-ers that fit their needs and budget.
    — Scott Kramer, Forbes, 21 Feb. 2023
  • With a growing number of off-the-shelf enterprise generative AI tools now available, sitting on the AI sidelines is no longer an option.
    — Shane Luke, Fortune, 27 Sep. 2023
  • Its wing shape gives it a range of up to 1,100 miles without requiring a jet engine; it’s built with readily available off-the-shelf components; and its low price means it can be launched in swarms to overwhelm defenses.
    — David Hambling, Popular Mechanics, 21 Apr. 2023
  • Here’s Figure’s custom actuator [left] vs. an off-the-shelf actuator with equal torque.
    — IEEE Spectrum, 17 Oct. 2023
  • To obtain the algorithms, the researchers purchased an off-the-shelf Motorola MTM5400 radio and spent four months locating and extracting the algorithms from the secure enclave in the radio’s firmware.
    — WIRED, 24 July 2023
  • In the same way, custom wallpaper panels or murals are generally more expensive than off-the-shelf rolls of wallpaper.
    — Randy Tucker, The Enquirer, 4 Apr. 2024
  • The scares continue to be imaginative but are more intense and visually striking, as the chill-inducing demonic nun replaces an off-the-shelf witch from the original.
    — Brendan Morrow, The Week, 6 Sep. 2023
  • But without more products accessible without a prescription behind-the-counter, as opposed to off-the-shelf, such switches in the U.S. will continue to be limited in number.
    — Joshua Cohen, Forbes, 2 Mar. 2024
  • Because the technology is so new, there isn’t an off-the-shelf training program companies can rely on, making upskilling even more difficult.
    — Paolo Confino, Fortune, 19 Jan. 2024
  • Those tools aren’t limited to secret in-house projects: Vendors sell plenty of off-the-shelf software, adjusting the algorithms to a company’s ideal hiring profile.
    — Gabriela Riccardi, Quartz, 3 July 2023
  • With most off-the-shelf and semi-custom vanities—and all the best bathroom vanities on our list—you’ll be looking at models that include a cabinet base and vanity countertop and sink.
    — Kristina McGuirk, Better Homes & Gardens, 25 Apr. 2023
  • More commonly, folks are actually referring to off-the-shelf insoles sold on their own that can be slid into casual shoe, dress shoes, or running sneakers as an insert.
    — Rachel Chang, Condé Nast Traveler, 14 Feb. 2024

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'off-the-shelf.' 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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