outcast

1 of 2

noun

out·​cast ˈau̇t-ˌkast 

1

: one that is cast out or refused acceptance (as by society)

2

[Scots cast out to quarrel] Scotland : quarrel

outcast

2 of 2

adjective

1

: rejected or cast out by society

I felt no longer outcast, vagrant, and disowned by the wide world.

—Charlotte Brontë

He breaks through the stereotype and humanizes this outcast group of young people.

—Publishers Weekly

Tom was like the rest of the respectable boys, in that he envied Huckleberry his gaudy outcast condition, and was under strict orders not to play with him.

—Mark Twain

2

: thrown aside : discarded

a pile of outcast furniture

outcast beliefs

Synonyms

Noun

• castaway
• castoff
• leper
• offscouring
• pariah
• reject

Examples of outcast in a Sentence

Noun

She felt like a social outcast.

the professor is something of an outcast in the halls of academe now that his former support of a dictatorial regime has become public

Recent Examples on the Web

Noun

Stephen King’s debut novel, which was first released 50 years ago on April 5, tells the chilling story of a telekinetic teenager, Carrie White, who’s an outcast at school and bullied by her peers. —Eric Andersson, Peoplemag, 5 Apr. 2024

Alejandro’s fate in the U.S. will largely depend on the sponsorship of Elizabeth (the British actress Tilda Swinton), an eccentric artist who has become an outcast. —Arturo Conde, NBC News, 28 Feb. 2024

When 12-year-old tech-head Hope falls in with a gang of likeminded outcasts, the misfit posse will have to foil a plot to replace the community’s children en masse, while grappling with deeper existential concerns: Just how ‘real’ are any of them? —Ben Croll, Variety, 8 Mar. 2024

Many of its members — designers, hair and makeup artists, stylists, photographers — grew up as outcasts of one kind or another, shunned in their hometowns for being too gay, too outré, too strange, too other. —Hanya Yanagihara, New York Times, 16 Feb. 2024

One of his more famous roles of the '80s was as a romantic outcast in John Hughes' Some Kind of Wonderful (1987). —Katie Rife, EW.com, 28 Jan. 2024

Yet overall, the film manages to capture the unmoored, uncertain feeling of being a broke outcast trying to eke by a few more days, eager to make it to happiness. —Elisabeth Garber-Paul, Rolling Stone, 5 Mar. 2024

Watch Hustle on Netflix Hubie Halloween In the 2020 Halloween comedy Hubie Halloween, Sandler plays Hubie, a naive yet loveable goof who is a bit of an outcast. —Keith Langston, Peoplemag, 1 Mar. 2024

In Lisa Frankenstein, Kathryn Newton stars as Lisa Swallows, a 17-year-old outcast who accidentally summons and falls in love with a Victorian-era zombie (Cole Sprouse). —Danielle Directo-Meston, The Hollywood Reporter, 29 Feb. 2024

Adjective

The title character of Nimona is a redheaded shape-shifter (Chloë Grace Moretz) who befriends outcast knight Sir Ballister Boldheart (Riz Ahmed) after the latter is framed for the murder of the queen (Lorraine Toussaint). —Christian Holub, EW.com, 30 June 2023

Her antagonist is Val Turner (Bathé), the principled, relentless and socially outcast FBI agent who will stop at nothing to foil her ambitious plan. —Jennifer Maas, Variety, 12 May 2022

Jack and Rose were outcast, lovelorn dreamers. —K. Austin Collins, Rolling Stone, 13 Dec. 2022

There could be other repercussions, such as getting booted from a committee or being outcast during the reelection cycle. —Laura Rodríguez Presa, Chicago Tribune, 1 Jan. 2023

The proof is in these stories, as Mantel explores different facets of a semi-outcast childhood in her striking and starkly beautiful prose. —Clea Simon, BostonGlobe.com, 23 June 2022

Word History

First Known Use

Noun

14th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Adjective

14th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Kids Definition

outcast

noun

out·​cast -ˌkast 

: a person who is cast out by society : pariah

outcast adjective