From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishtrade something ↔ off phrasal verbEQUALto balance one situation or quality against another, in order to produce an acceptable result for/against Companies are under pressure to trade off price stability for short-term gains. → trade-off → trade→ See Verb table
Examples from the Corpus
trade off• S. authorities in hopes of a lighter sentence is a time-honored trade - off.• There should be no trade - off.• Second, they demonstrate how different presidential systems produce a trade - off between the principles of democratic efficiency and democratic representation.• The figure is a heuristic device to illustrate this trade - off in stark terms.• Schor's evidence is in direct contradiction to the neo - classical income / leisure trade - off model outlined above.• Such evidence casts doubt on the validity of the income / leisure trade - off model.• Institutions place third market orders with broker-dealers registered to trade exchange-listed securities off the exchange floor.trade-offˈtrade-off noun [countable] EQUALa balance between two opposing things, that you are willing to accept in order to achieve somethinga trade-off between something and something There has to be a trade-off between quality and quantity if we want to keep prices low.Examples from the Corpus
trade-off• Inflation is often a trade-off for healthy economic growth.• It is very beneficial to work for yourself, but there are trade-offs.• Of course, there are technical and economic trade-offs associated with scale.• You make trade-offs to stay sane.• However, taking account of dignity requires the acceptance of any necessary trade-offs between it and other valued objectives.• All that is certain is that trade-offs of this kind will be inevitable.• Also the nature of the trade-offs may change over time, as may the choices of the policy-maker.• The trade-off, as Fraser remarks, is between freedom and coherence.a trade-off between something and something• Happily, though, most investments offer a trade-off between risk and return.• Longer grams have greater storage requirements too, so there is a trade-off between performance and storage.• The payment of dividends therefore represents a trade-off between agency costs and flotation costs.• There is a trade-off between cost and perfection.• There may be a trade-off between price maximisation and restricting the circulation of the information memorandum.• These rates are clearly a trade-off between economic logic and political expediency.• This implies that a trade-off between unemployment and inflation may exist only in the very short term.From Longman Business Dictionarytrade something ↔ off phrasal verb [transitive] to balance two situations against each other in order to get an acceptable resultCompanies are under pressure to trade off price stability for short-term gains → see also trade-off → trade→ See Verb tabletrade-offˈtrade-off noun [countable] a balance between two situations in order to get an acceptable resultThe legal restrictions will remain as a trade-off for allowing interstate investment. 