trade off

English

Verb

trade off (third-person singular simple present trades off, present participle trading off, simple past and past participle traded off)

1. (transitive, with for) To choose (something) in exchange for something else, where having both at once is not an available option.

   In the entry-level product category, the engineers had to trade off maximal durability for affordable upfront cost.

2. (intransitive, with between or among) To choose among options, where having them all at once is not an available option.

   Part of being a competent engineer is knowing how to trade off appropriately among mutually exclusive options, depending on the specified requirements for each design.

Related terms

• trade away
• trade down
• trade in
• trade-off, tradeoff (deverbal noun)
• trade up