Noun

(en noun)

The way in which something is positioned vis-à-vis its surroundings.

* 1908 , (Kenneth Grahame), (The Wind in the Willows) :

...he being naturally an underground animal by birth and breeding, the situation of Badger's house exactly suited him and made him feel at home; while the Rat, who slept every night in a bedroom the windows of which opened on a breezy river, naturally felt the atmosphere still and oppressive.

The place in which something is situated; a location.

* 1833 , Thomas Hibbert and Robert Buist, The American Flower Garden Directory , page 142:

[Hibíscus] speciòsus is the most splendid, and deserves a situation in every garden.

Position or status with regard to conditions and circumstances.

The combination of circumstances at a given moment; a state of affairs.

*

, title=(The Celebrity), chapter=5 , passage=Then we relapsed into a discomfited silence, and wished we were anywhere else. But Miss Thorn relieved the situation by laughing aloud, and with such a hearty enjoyment that instead of getting angry and more mortified we began to laugh ourselves, and instantly felt better.}}

(UK, dated) A position of employment; a post.

* 1913 , , (Sons and Lovers) , Penguin 2006, page 78:

When he was nineteen, he suddenly left the 'Co-op' office, and got a situation in Nottingham.

* 1946 , Vaughn Horton, Denver Darling, Milt Gabler, :

You take a morning paper from the top of the stack

And read the situations from the front to the back

The only job that's open need a man with a knack

So put it right back in the rack Jack.

A difficult or unpleasant set of circumstances; a problem.

Boss, we've got a situation here...

Noun

(en noun)

That which comes off or the act or process of coming off; emission.

*1883 , Royal Astronomical Society, NASA Astrophysics Data System Abstract Service, OCLC FirstSearch Electronic Collections Online, Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Volume 45 - Page 96 :

[...] to observe as regards exact direction, owing (especially in the instance of pretty bright meteors) to the dense offcome of sparks from the nucleus, or to the phosphorescence it generates as the result of concussion with the air.

The way any thing or business turns out]]; the way a person [[come off, comes off from an encounter or enterprise; result; outcome; reception.

*1885 , Francis Warner, Physical expression: its modes and principles - Page 37 :

Such movement is called reflex action, or reflex movement, in distinction from the case of the statue, where there is no change or movement in the subject, which is passive, all expression being an offcome , not an " outcome;" [...]

*2010 , H. W. Dickinson, James Watt: Craftsman and Engineer - Page 21 :

In July he wrote to his father: " I have not yet got a master, they all make some objection or other" and no wonder, for who wanted such an "offcome "?

(UK, dialectal, chiefly, Scotland) An apology; excuse.

(UK, dialectal, chiefly, Scotland) An escape or evasion by subterfuge or pretext; a way of avoiding or getting out of a difficult or uncomfortable situation.