build-out

noun

ˈbild-ˌau̇t 

variants or less commonly buildout

plural build-outs also buildouts

1

a

: work done to make a structure or system ready for use or to bring a construction or development project to a completed state

When the build-out of the campus is complete, as many as 7,500 students will attend class there.

—Janis L. Magin

b

: work done to expand a system (such as a telecommunications system)

The buildout of new infrastructure for digital cellular telephony is at such an early stage that it's impossible to predict what the performance of some of the systems will be.

—Brian C. Fenton

c

: a project or process involving such work

Of course, the Chinese are traveling and spending more in their own country too, in part because of a gigantic infrastructure build-out; China will have constructed more high-speed-rail capacity by the end of the decade than is currently operating in the rest of the world, some 10,000 miles' (16,000 km) worth.

—Bill Saporito

2

: a state in which an area has been fully developed

At build-out, the community is planned to include retail, restaurant and office space, a hotel, urban-style and loft apartments, townhomes, and condominiums.

—The Flower Mound (Texas) Leader

Examples of build-out in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

At least as likely: A new build-out would require closure for several weeks of much of the third floor, dropping the art on view by a considerable amount. —Christopher Knight, Los Angeles Times, 27 Mar. 2024

Since being elected in 2022, Mr. Lula has drastically reduced deforestation in the Amazon and overseen a sizable build-out of renewable energy. —Max Bearak, New York Times, 13 Mar. 2024

During the dot-com bubble, fiber-optic broadband service providers borrowed billions to finance the rapid build-out of their networks. —Peter Cohan, Forbes, 1 Mar. 2024

Cudahy City Administrator Casey Griffiths said he was informed by a representative of Mid-America that the build-out of the former O’Reilly’s building would start soon. —Journal Sentinel, 28 Feb. 2024

Officials said the initial cost was about $10 million, which included the initial rent and build-out of the facility. —Jaclyn Cosgrove, Los Angeles Times, 21 Feb. 2024

The build-out for the cemetery would be in 10 phases over over 100 years. —Michael Slaten, Orange County Register, 26 Jan. 2024

Meanwhile, Taiwanese chipmaker TSMC, which makes most of Nvidia’s processors, is also expanding in Arizona with a $40 billion build-out, reportedly among the largest foreign investments in U.S. history. —Michal Lev-Ram, Fortune, 29 Jan. 2024

To do the build-out, production, and validation could easily take seven or more years, Galyen said. —IEEE Spectrum, 26 Jan. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1955, in the meaning defined at sense 1a