1
: the act of expending
2
: expenditure, payment
outlays for national defense
Examples of outlay in a Sentence
Verb
the nation had outlaid nearly 20 billion dollars on social programs at that point
Noun
The initial outlay for the program will be 2.4 million dollars.
Maintaining a horse requires considerable outlay.
Recent Examples on the Web
Andrew Marchand, New York Times, 3 Mar. 2026
Microsoft plans to outlay $4 billion in the next five years worldwide.
—Paresh Dave, Wired News, 24 Dec. 2025
Bloomberg, Mercury News, 16 Mar. 2026
The latest estimate revised several output categories lower, including exports, consumer spending and government outlays.
—Bryan Mena, CNN Money, 13 Mar. 2026
See All Example Sentences for outlay
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Verb
Netflix would have paid nearly $83 billion, and given its resources, would have had more to outlay on live sports.
—Andrew Marchand, New York Times, 3 Mar. 2026
Microsoft plans to outlay $4 billion in the next five years worldwide.
—Paresh Dave, Wired News, 24 Dec. 2025
Noun
The outlay represents one of the biggest single contracts that Meta has signed, underscoring the Instagram and Facebook owner’s push for more computing capacity to power the development of AI products.
—Bloomberg, Mercury News, 16 Mar. 2026
The latest estimate revised several output categories lower, including exports, consumer spending and government outlays.
—Bryan Mena, CNN Money, 13 Mar. 2026
See All Example Sentences for outlay
Cite this Entry
“Outlay.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/outlay. Accessed 22 Mar. 2026.
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