@Tes yeux noirs,
Tes yeux noirs wrote:
Offset means counterbalanced. Let us say that I am a gambler. I bet on horseraces and football matches. If I say that last year I made a loss on horses and a gain on football, I am saying that my losses were offset (to some degree) by my gains. However I can specify the degree of offset:
If I lost $100 on horses, and gained $90 on football, my losses were partly offset by my gains. (If I gained $99 then my losses were almost offset.)
If I lost $100 on horses, and gained $100 on football, my losses were exactly (or completely) offset by my gains.
If I lost $100 on horses, and gained $110 on football, my losses were more than offset by my gains.
Thanks.
All explanations are crystal clear except the last sentence.
I compare it to the OP sentence:
Quote:its happiness-boosting benefits were more than offset by a drop in the quality of relationships over the period.
It says "benefits were more than offset". So if you've rewritten "my gains were more than offset by my losses", I would have had no problem in understanding: benefits>a drop and gains>losses (110>100). But now, I don't whether it is "benefits>a drop" or "a drop>benefits".