Definition of outlandish
1 : of or relating to another country : foreign saw many outlandish animals at the zoo
2a : strikingly out of the ordinary : bizarre an outlandish costume Her book is filled with outlandish characters. spun some outlandish talesb : exceeding proper or reasonable limits or standards workers complain of outlandish hours — Joan E. Rigdon outlandish government specifications
3 : remote from civilization no other young men foolish enough to offer to go to such an outlandish station — Geog. Jour.
outlandishly
adverboutlandishness
nounExplore M-W
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Examples of outlandish in a Sentence
She fills her books with outlandish characters.
The actress wore an outlandish dress to the awards ceremony.
Recent Examples of outlandish from the Web
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This may not be such an outlandish idea; in fact, there’s a good precedent.
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In an early version of the party game telephone, mistakes were compounded with exaggerations ever more outlandish.
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Perhaps nothing illustrated this subversion better than the outlandish dust jackets doctored by playwright Joe Orton and his lover, Kenneth Halliwell.
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Mr. Guo’s allegations are unproved, and some of his claims have been outlandish and easily debunked.
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The accolade speaks to the hotel's outlandish qualities: fantastical Arabian decor, helicopter tours, a fleet of Rolls-Royce Phantoms, a reception on every floor, 24-hour butler services, and Ferrari and Lamborghini rentals.
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Sy objects to the outlandish plan but Emmit convinces him to jump in with both feet.
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And few pink doughnut boxes are more coveted than those found at Voodoo Doughnut, the outlandish Portland, Ore., shop that gave us the NyQuil doughnut.
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Many in the industry seem to feel that Affy's claims are outlandish.
These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'outlandish'. Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Did You Know?
In olden times, English speakers used the phrase outlandish man to refer to a foreigner - or, one who came from an outland, which originally meant "a foreign land." From here, outlandish broadened in usage from a word meaning "from another land" to one describing something unfamiliar or strange. Dress was a common early target for the adjective - Henry Fielding, in Tom Jones (1749), writes of a woman who was drest in one of your outlandish Garments. Nowadays, the word can be applied to anything that strikes us as out of the ordinary, as in the description of one man’s outlandish proposal to replace the aging Tappan Zee Bridge with a seven-mile tunnel, from the New York Times, September 16, 2001.
First Known Use of outlandish
before 12th century
Synonym Discussion of outlandish
OUTLANDISH Defined for English Language Learners
outlandish
playDefinition of outlandish for English Language Learners
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: very strange or unusual : extremely different from what is normal or expected
OUTLANDISH Defined for Kids
Learn More about outlandish
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Thesaurus: All synonyms and antonyms for outlandish Spanish Central: Translation of outlandish Nglish: Translation of outlandish for Spanish speakers
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