out

1 of 6

adverb

1
a(1)
: in a direction away from the inside or center
went out into the garden
(2)
: outside
it's raining out
b
: from among others
c
: away from the shore
d
: away from home or work
out to lunch
e
: away from a particular place
2
a
: so as to be missing or displaced from the usual or proper place
left a word out
threw his shoulder out
b
: into the possession or control of another
lend out money
c
: into a state of loss or defeat
was voted out
d
: into a state of vexation
they do not mark me, and that brings me outWilliam Shakespeare
e
: into groups or shares
sorted out her notes
parceled out the farm
3
a
: to the point of depletion, extinction, or exhaustion
the food ran out
turn the light out
all tuckered out
b
: to completion or satisfaction
hear me out
work the problem out
c
: to the full or a great extent or degree
all decked out
stretched out on the floor
4
a
: in or into the open
the sun came out
b
: out loud
cried out
c
: in or into public circulation
the evening paper isn't out yet
hand out pamphlets
the library book is still out
5
a
: at an end
before the day is out
b
: in or into an insensible or unconscious state
she was out cold
c
: in or into a useless state
landed the plane with one engine out
d
: so as to end the offensive turn of another player, a side, or oneself in baseball
threw him out
fly out
6
used on a two-way radio circuit to indicate that a message is complete and no reply is expected

out

2 of 6

verb

outed; outing; outs
1
transitive : to identify (someone) publicly as being such secretly
Ever feel as if your achievements are a fluke or that you're one conversation away from being outed as a fraud?Gillian Fox
Foster … was the man who outed the journalist Joe Klein as the author of the novel "Primary Colors."Walter Kirn
especially : to reveal the covert sexual orientation or gender identity of (someone)
outed her to her coworkers
In our case, a cross-section of writers and editors—male and female, gay and straight—agreed that it would be inappropriate to "out" this Pentagon official. Richard Goldstein
2
intransitive : to become publicly known
the truth will out
Murder will out.
3
transitive : to put out : to eject (someone) from a place, office, or possession : expel
During the suppression, we privately kept outed vicars as chaplains and attended secret Anglican services …Rose Macaulay

out

3 of 6

preposition

used as a function word to indicate an outward movement
ran out the door
looked out the window

out

4 of 6

adjective

1
a
: situated outside : external
2
: situated at a distance : outlying
the out islands
3
: not being in power
4
: absent
5
: removed by the defense from play as a batter or base runner in a baseball inning
two men out
6
: directed outward or serving to direct something outward
the out basket
7
: not being in vogue or fashion
8
: not to be considered : out of the question
9
: determined sense 1
was out to get revenge
10
: engaged in or attempting a particular activity
won on his first time out
11
: having one's LGBTQ sexual orientation or gender identity publicly known
an out trans person
wasn't out during college

out

5 of 6

noun

1
2
: one who is out of office or power or on the outside
a matter of outs versus ins
3
a
: an act or instance of putting a player out or of being put out in baseball
b
: a player that is put out
4
: a way of escaping from an embarrassing or difficult situation

out-

6 of 6

prefix

: in a manner that exceeds or surpasses and sometimes overpowers or defeats
outmaneuver
Phrases
on the outs
: on unfriendly terms : at variance

Examples of out in a Sentence

Adverb He went out to the garden. He looked out at the snow. She poured the tea out. The girl stuck her tongue out. His shirttail was hanging out. I heard a noise in the bushes and out jumped a cat! He waited out in the hall. I cleaned my car inside and out. A car pulled up and two men got out. He grabbed his coat and out he went. Verb a gay actor who was outed in a magazine article He is threatening to out other players who have used steroids. Adjective he's out to get even with the guy who beat him last time around half the staff is out with the flu Noun The play resulted in an out. With two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning, he hit a home run to win the game. He changed the wording of the contract to give himself an out.
Recent Examples on the Web
Adverb
Five days out, Platinum tickets were available at Ticketmaster starting at $451. Ed Masley, The Arizona Republic, 12 Mar. 2024 These accounts of children’s deaths just scrape the surface of the suffering that’s out there. Frank H. McCourt Jr., Fortune, 12 Mar. 2024 Aronson reports to Lawrence and is based out in Variety‘s the Los Angeles office. William Earl, Variety, 12 Mar. 2024 Women out there: Stop and think before casting a vote for Trump, who will destroy our country if given a chance. Letters To The Editor, The Mercury News, 11 Mar. 2024 Also, the city could urge the property managers to require all visitors to sign in and out, and to divert low-level issues to on-site personnel. Phil Diehl, San Diego Union-Tribune, 10 Mar. 2024 There are a million others out there, but none seem to matter much. David Pierce, The Verge, 10 Mar. 2024 The City of Venice said the whale is located on a sandbar about 50 yards out from Service Club Park. Sarah Al-Arshani, USA TODAY, 10 Mar. 2024 Gosling is at the top of his industry and was willing to put himself out there and support his co-star and colleagues – even in the midst of the backlash. Teresa Hopke, Forbes, 29 Feb. 2024
Verb
The claims came in response to a story by The National Enquirer that shared personal text messages between Sánchez and Bezos, outing their relationship. Alexia Fernández, Peoplemag, 6 Mar. 2024 The final game test was Rainbow Six Extraction below and here the RX 7900 GRE was able to out pace the RTX 4070 Super at all three resolutions, still managing an average frame rate of 97fps at 4K, which matched the RTX 4070 Ti. Antony Leather, Forbes, 26 Feb. 2024 Reuters reported that an old school associate in had outed him shortly after he was named a junior minister. Sarah Al-Arshani, USA TODAY, 10 Jan. 2024 Goodman gave a statement to police anonymously, but Sun later outed her as the witness in a lengthy statement of her own that denied and downplayed the worst of the allegations against her. The Arizona Republic, 6 Jan. 2024 Leading up to Live's Las Vegas episodes, Ripa revealed earlier this year that she and Consuelos — who became a couple while filming the soap opera All My Children together — kept their wedding a secret from their TV show family, until Wendy Williams outed their relationship on the radio. EW.com, 28 Feb. 2024 And so when Gorsuch used this term, it was noticed not just by Isgur but by a number of fans, who started e-mailing in to wonder if Gorsuch had just outed himself as a listener. Kelefa Sanneh, The New Yorker, 7 Feb. 2024 After Gawker outed the conservative billionaire as gay, Thiel bankrolled wrestling star Hulk Hogan’s case against the publication, which ended up driving the media site out of business. Christiaan Hetzner, Fortune, 7 Feb. 2024 There also appear to be a number of Russian accounts on X posing as pro-Texas groups, in another echo of 2016 when an account that claimed to be run by Tennessee Republicans was outed as Russian-run. David Gilbert, WIRED, 7 Feb. 2024
Preposition
Five trailers sprawl out in a labyrinth of surrealist artwork, skeletariums, and gift shops. Jonah Gercke, SPIN, 15 Mar. 2024 The big tech giants Microsoft and Apple took the top two spots on the list for most dividends paid out amid a banner year for U.S. tech. Will Daniel, Fortune, 14 Mar. 2024 This would flush out any residual food and plaque buildup prior to brushing your teeth. Popular Science, 14 Mar. 2024 After His Shocking Move in the Pods (Exclusive) Ultimately though, AD said things fizzled out. Joelle Goldstein, Peoplemag, 14 Mar. 2024 Similarly decrease time demands out of season by reducing out-of-season competition and practices, and by considering shorter seasons in specific sports. 6. Jon Wilner, The Mercury News, 14 Mar. 2024 Stripping out certain items, earnings were $2.55 per share, which is still short of the per-share earnings of $2.67 expected on Wall Street, according to a survey by Zacks Investment Research. Michelle Chapman, Quartz, 14 Mar. 2024 They were spotted out doing some shopping together one day last month, also made a casual coffee run on Brown's 20th birthday on Feb. 19. Esme Mazzeo, Peoplemag, 3 Mar. 2024 There were no theme parks to hit up while out this way, so Kinsley and her father toured the Indianapolis Speedway and visited a local go-kart racing. The Indianapolis Star, 2 Mar. 2024
Adjective
In the episode, Buck and other firefighters from Station 118 helped out Captain Strand (Rob Lowe) and his team as an out-of-control wildfire ripped through Texas. Julia Moore, Peoplemag, 12 Mar. 2024 Meaning, that in Sarasota, for example, there's a very lively cultural out scene, there are good restaurants, uh, uh, people are really nice. Cnt Editors, Condé Nast Traveler, 29 Feb. 2024 Puk threw two shutout innings in the Marlins’ 7-1 spring training loss to the New York Mets on Tuesday at Clover Park, with his only blemish being a one-out walk to Francisco Alvarez in the first inning. Jordan McPherson, Miami Herald, 27 Feb. 2024 Playing the recently divorced brother of Jeffrey Wright’s Monk Ellison (who is nominated for best actor), the Emmy winner delivered a nuanced performance in the dramedy as a newly out gay man. Brendan Le, Peoplemag, 25 Feb. 2024 After adding in the state and local sales tax, plus the DMV and dealer fees, the out the door and in your garage total purchase price came to: $63,484. Tony Leopardo, The Mercury News, 25 Feb. 2024 As Monk’s brother, supporting actor nominee Sterling K. Brown’s Cliff is someone living his truth as an out gay man for the first time, closing the gap between his outward image and his authentic identity after his divorce from his wife. Tomris Laffly, Variety, 17 Feb. 2024 After adding in the state and local sales tax, plus the DMV and dealer fees, the out the door and in your driveway total purchase price came to: $55,665. Tony Leopardo, The Mercury News, 21 Jan. 2024 The original request in Senator Coons’s draft bill that South Africa be subject to an out-of-cycle review of its membership in this agreement was neither unfair nor unreasonable. Ivor Ichikowitz, Fortune, 26 Jan. 2024
Noun
Across social media and on message boards — and indeed, even before the internet, royal-watchers have gathered to discuss who’s doing what, who’s on the outs, and whose secrets are the juiciest. Aj Willingham, CNN, 15 Mar. 2024 But surely Mandy must have spent some time, during that night, gazing at the dim square of the bedroom skylight and thinking about the girl sleeping on the fold-out, who had been so unabashed about changing that Mandy had seen her young, buoyant breasts. Fiona McFarlane, The New Yorker, 4 Mar. 2024 And despite an apparently very brief visit to see his father after the cancer diagnosis, Prince Harry still remains on the outs with his family. Mary McNamara, Los Angeles Times, 29 Feb. 2024 Assemblyman Chris Holden, D-Pasadena, on Thursday responded to questions about Assembly Bills 257 and 1228 after Bloomberg reported Panera may have achieved a special carve-out due to franchisee Greg Flynn’s friendship with Gov. Gavin Newsom. Lindsey Holden, Sacramento Bee, 29 Feb. 2024 The Razorbacks removed all drama before the Tigers could record an out. Tom Murphy, arkansasonline.com, 28 Feb. 2024 And while there are a number of structures to choose from such as earn outs or even rollover equity, the effect is to make the business easier for the purchaser to acquire while tying some portion of the seller’s return to the success of the business post-sale. Mary Josephs, Forbes, 21 Feb. 2024 In the seventh, Venezuela had men on first and second with no outs and only scored once. Dominic Pino, National Review, 6 Feb. 2024 An entire cycle takes about 100 seconds: 80 for reel-out and 20 for reel-in. IEEE Spectrum, 16 Jan. 2024

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'out.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

Etymology

Adverb and Prefix

Middle English, from Old English ūt; akin to Old High German ūz out, Greek hysteros later, Sanskrit ud up, out

First Known Use

Adverb

before the 12th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1a(1)

Verb

before the 12th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Preposition

13th century, in the meaning defined above

Adjective

13th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1a

Noun

1717, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Time Traveler
The first known use of out was before the 12th century

Dictionary Entries Near out

Cite this Entry

“Out.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/out. Accessed 19 Mar. 2024.

Kids Definition

out

1 of 6 adverb
1
a
: in a direction away from the inside, center, or surface
look out of a window
b
: outdoors entry 1
it's raining out
2
: from among others
picked out a hat
3
: away from home, business, or the usual or proper place
out to lunch
left a word out
4
: into a state of loss or defeat
was voted out of office
5
: into the possession or control of another
lent out money
6
: into groups or shares
sorted out her notes
7
a
: so as to be exhausted, completed, or discontinued
the food ran out
the light burned out
b
: at an end
before the week is out
8
a
: in or into the open
the sun came out
b
: aloud
cried out
9
a
: to completion or satisfaction
work the problem out
b
: to the full or a great extent or degree
stretched out on the floor
all decked out
10
: so as to put out or be put out in baseball
the catcher threw the runner out
grounded out to shortstop

out

2 of 6 verb
: to become known
the truth will out

out

3 of 6 preposition
(ˌ)au̇t
used to indicate an outward movement
ran out the door
looked out the window

out

4 of 6 adjective
ˈau̇t
1
a
: located outside or at a distance
the out islands
2
: not being in power
the out party
3
: not allowed to continue batting, to occupy a base, or to score in baseball
the runner was out
4
: directed outward or directing something outward
put the letter in the out basket
5
: absent entry 1 sense 1, missing
a basket with its bottom out
6
: no longer in fashion
that style of pants is definitely out
7
: not to be considered
that choice was out as far as we were concerned
8
: determined sense 1
was out to get revenge
9
: engaged in or attempting a particular activity
won on his first time out

out

5 of 6 noun
ˈau̇t
1
: one who is out of power
2
a
: the putting out of a batter or base runner in baseball
b
: a player who has been put out
3
: a way of escaping from an embarrassing situation or a difficulty

out-

6 of 6 prefix
: in a manner that goes beyond
outmaneuver
Etymology

Prefix

derived from out (adverb)

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