out

Etymology

From Middle English out, oute, from a combination of Old English ūt (“out”, preposition & adverb), from Proto-Germanic *ūt (“out”); and Old English ūte (“outside; without”, adverb), from Proto-Germanic *ūtai (“out; outside”); both from Proto-Indo-European *úd (“upwards, away”). Cognate with Scots oot, out (“out”), Saterland Frisian uut, uute (“out”), West Frisian út (“out”), Dutch uit (“out”), German Low German ut (“out”), German aus (“out”), Norwegian/Swedish ut, ute (“out; outside”), Danish ud, ude (“out; outside”).

adv

1. Away from the inside, centre or other point of reference.
   The magician tapped the hat, and a rabbit jumped out.
   Once they had landed, the commandos quickly spread out along the beach.
   For six hours the tide flows out, then for six hours it flows in.
2. Away from home or one's usual place.
   Let’s eat out tonight
3. Outside; not indoors.
   Last night we slept out under the stars.
4. Away from; at a distance.
   Keep out!
5. Into a state of non-operation or non-existence.
   Turn the lights out.
   Put the fire out.
   I painted out that nasty mark on the wall.
6. To the end; completely.
   I haven’t finished. Hear me out.
7. Used to intensify or emphasize.
   The place was all decked out for the holidays.
8. (of the sun, moon, stars, etc.) So as to be visible in the sky, and not covered by clouds, fog, etc.
   The sun came out after the rain, and we saw a rainbow.
9. (cricket, baseball) Of a player, so as to be disqualified from playing further by some action of a member of the opposing team (such as being stumped in cricket).
   Wilson was bowled out for five runs.
   First ball hit me on the 'and, second 'ad me on the knee, the third was in my eye, the fourth bowled me out. 1876, The School newspaper Vol. [2 issues of vols. 31 and 32]., page 66
   Hayes batted for Reed and grounded out, Murray unassisted. 1984, Official Baseball Guide, page 211
   So, first guy, Larry strikes him out, good fastball in on his hands. 2007, Philip R. Craig, William G. Tapply, Third Strike: A Brady Coyne/J. W. Jackson Mystery, page 27
   The striking batter is bowled out when the wicket is broken with the bowler's delivery. A batter is bowled out whether or not the ball is touched or deflected into the stumps by the batter. 2010, Mark Butcher, Paul Abraham, Learn to Play Cricket: Teach Yourself, page A-65

prep

1. From the inside to the outside of; out of.
   Thy roselips and full blue eyes / Take the heart from out my breast. 1830, Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Adeline
   After she'd made her single cup of coffee she sat looking out the window into the slushy, halficy backyard and dialed Tony's number on Staten Island. 2012, Thomas Gifford, Woman in the Window

noun

1. A means of exit, escape, reprieve, etc.
   They wrote the law to give those organizations an out.
2. (baseball) A state in which a member of the batting team is removed from play due to the application of various rules of the game such as striking out, hitting a fly ball which is caught by the fielding team before bouncing, etc.
   The first time I saw Amity we were in front of her house playing work-up, a baseball variation where you move from position to position by outs until you get to bat. 2014, Tom Bentley, Flowering: And Other Stories
3. (cricket) A dismissal; a state in which a member of the batting team finishes his turn at bat, due to the application of various rules of the game, such as the bowler knocking over the batsman's wicket with the ball.
4. (poker) A card which can make a hand a winner.
   As a beginner, when you are in a hand, you should practice counting your outs, or those live cards left in the deck that can improve your hand. 2005, Alison M. Pendergast, Play Winning Poker in No Time, page 57
   If he did have a bigger ace, I still had at least six outs — the case ace, two nines, and three tens. I could also have more outs if he held anything less than A-K. 2006, David Apostolico, Lessons from the Professional Poker Tour, page 21
5. (dated) A trip out; an outing.
6. (chiefly in the plural) One who, or that which, is out; especially, one who is out of office.
   This memoir has nothing to do with the question between the ins and the outs; it is intended neither to support nor to assail the administration; it is general in its views upon a general and national subject; […] 1827, Benjamin Chew, A Sketch of the Politics, Relations, and Statistics, of the Western World, page 192
7. A place or space outside of something; a nook or corner; an angle projecting outward; an open space.
8. (printing, dated) A word or words omitted by the compositor in setting up copy; an omission.

verb

1. (transitive) To eject; to expel.
   a king outed of his country 1689, John Selden, Table Talk
   The French have been outed from their holds. 1674, Peter Heylin, Cosmographie in four bookes
2. (intransitive) To come or go out; to get out or away; to become public, revealed, or apparent.
   In which Argument he whose courage can serve him to give the first onset, must look for two severall oppositions: the one from those who having sworn themselves to long custom and the letter of the Text, will not out of the road: the other from those whose grosse and vulgar apprehensions conceit but low of matrimoniall purposes, and in the work of male and female think they have all. 1643, John Milton, Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce
   In those opening minutes City looked like a team that were not ready for Celtic's intensity. They looked a bit shocked to be involved in a fight. Class will out, though. 28 September 2016, Tom English, “Celtic 3–3 Manchester City”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name), BBC Sport
3. (transitive) To reveal (a person or organization) as having a certain secret, such as a being a secret agent or undercover detective.
   2009 March 16, Maurna Desmond, "AIG Outs Counterparties" (online news article), Forbes.com.
   "Did Dora just offer up that advice, or were you pumping her for information?" "Shoot, I outed my informant. I'm a terrible spy." 2017, Jeph Jacques, Questionable Content (webcomic), Number 3509: Sensitive Information
4. (transitive) To reveal (a secret).
   A Brazilian company outed the new mobile phone design.
   [Tom] Holland himself admitted to GQ last year that the two hadn't really wanted to go public with their dating status. A video of them making out in a car outed their relationship. 2022-12-16, Alyssa Bailey, “Zendaya Took Tom Holland to Visit Her Old School in Oakland”, in Elle
5. (transitive, LGBT) To reveal (a person) as LGBT+ (gay, trans, etc).
   She throws her head back and lets out a warm laugh before she continues, “After that I thought, What am I so worried about? So I began to tell more people, and the more I outed myself, the easier it got.” July 18 2014, Jase Peeples, “Susan Blu: Transformation of an Animation Icon”, in The Advocate
   Trans Media Watch had recently spoken at the Leveson Inquiry about how the Sun and the Daily Mail routinely outed trans people, publishing old names and photos, for no reason other than because they could. 2015, Juliet Jacques, Trans: A Memoir, Verso Books
   Always in my life I knew I was different. I also accepted that in a way, but I thought I could just live out those desires in private, for myself. I also have gone out en femme for a couple of years. […] I outed myself to my sister, which was super positive and is now my biggest supporter (love u sis!). December 30, 2015, Kathy, “Kathy's Favorite Photo (of Kathy!)”, in Femulate
   The Parkses were strict and narrowminded, and not knowing what to do with their recently outed bisexual teenage daughter, their obvious solution was to cut her off from her friends and keep her from leaving the house. 2016, Molly Booth, Saving Hamlet, Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
   As of 2018, I chair the workforce committee and lead on diversity and inclusion, including heading up a policy review on gender identity and trans inclusion, although that led me to be publicly outed as non-binary in the Sunday Times. 2020, Jos Twist, Meg-John Barker, Kat Gupta, Benjamin Vincent, Non-Binary Lives: An Anthology of Intersecting Identities, Jessica Kingsley Publishers, page 116
6. To kill; to snuff out.

adj

1. Not inside a place one might otherwise be expected to be, especially a place one was formerly or is customarily inside:
   1. Not at home, or not at one's office or place of employment.
      I'm sorry, Mr Smith is out at the moment.
   2. Not in jail, prison, or captivity; freed from confinement.
      Sentenced to five years, he could be out in three with good behavior.
   3. Not inside or within something.
      I worked away cleaning the U-bend until all the gunge was out.
   4. Not fitted or inserted into something.
      The TV won't work with the plug out!
   5. (sports) Of the ball or other playing implement, falling or passing or being situated outside the bounds of the playing area.
      I thought the ball hit the line, but the umpire said it was out.
2. Not (or no longer) acceptable or in consideration, play, availability, or operation:
   1. (in various games; used especially of a batsman or batter in cricket or baseball) Dismissed from play under the rules of the game.
      He bowls, Johnson pokes at it […] and […] Johnson is out! Caught behind by Ponsonby!
   2. (of ideas, plans, etc.) Discarded; no longer a possibility.
      Right, so that idea's out. Let's move on to the next one.
   3. (of options) acceptable, permissible
      I've got diabetes, so cookies are right out.
   4. (of certain services, devices, or facilities) Not available; out of service.
      Power is out in the entire city.
      My wi-fi is out.
   5. (of a user of a service) Not having availability of a service, such as power or communications.
      Most of the city got service back yesterday, but my neighborhood is still out.
   6. (of lamps, fires etc.) Not shining or burning.
      I called round to the house but all the lights were out and no one was home.
   7. (of an organization, etc.) Temporarily not in operation, or not being attended as usual.
      No one is out screaming about Congress being out on a month long vacation. 1990-08-20, PBS NewsHour (TV), DeFrank (actor)
      […] I had to be there after high school, I mean, after school was out, and after college was out, I had to go straight home. 2012-10-23, Kids As Caregivers Face Special Challenges (radio), via National Public Radio
      It's a good thing that Congress is out for the month of August […] 2013-08-04, Powerhouse Roundtable (TV), Jeff Zeleny (actor), via ABC
      School is out tomorrow due to snow. When college is out for the summer, I'll head back to my home state.
      when school gets out today After school's out, I go to the library until my mom gets off work.
   8. No longer popular or in fashion.
      Black is out this season. The new black is white.
3. Open or public (about something).
   1. (LGBT) Openly acknowledging that one is LGBT+ (gay, trans, etc).
      It's no big deal to be out in the entertainment business.
      I had not come out yet and he was out but wasn't; quite ungay, I would say, and yet gay. 2011, Allan Bérubé, My Desire for History: Essays in Gay, Community, and Labor History
      However, for a transgender man, while living stealth can be a feasible option for some, key people will need to know […] Not everyone has to be out, loud and proud or march down the streets holding trans flags […] 2018, Matthew Waites, Supporting Young Transgender Men: A Guide for Professionals, Jessica Kingsley Publishers, page 40
   2. (by extension, uncommon) Open, public; public about or openly acknowledging some (usually specified) identity.
      She was “out” as a survivor for the first time in her life. “I had friends who had known me many, many years who are totally astounded, shocked,” she said. “They could not believe that I was a Holocaust survivor. […]” 2014, Arlene Stein, Reluctant Witnesses: Survivors, Their Children, and the Rise of Holocaust Consciousness, Oxford University Press
4. Freed from from secrecy.
   My secret is out.
5. Available to be seen, or to be interacted with in some way:
   1. Released, available for purchase, download or other use.
      Did you hear? Their newest CD is out!
      The game was commercially released on Xbox and PC in 2005 as an installment of the Close Combat series, which had been out since 1996. 2009, Roger Stahl, Militainment, Inc.: War, Media, and Popular Culture, page 96
   2. (of flowers) In bloom.
      The garden looks beautiful now that the roses are out.
   3. (of the sun, moon or stars) Visible in the sky; not obscured by clouds.
      The sun is out, and it's a lovely day.
   4. (obsolete) Of a young lady: having entered society and available to be courted.
6. Of the tide, at or near its lowest level.
   You can walk to the island when the tide's out.
7. Without; no longer in possession of; not having more
   Do you have any bread? Sorry, we're out.
8. (of calculations or measurements) Containing errors or discrepancies; in error by a stated amount.
   Nothing adds up in this report. All these figures are out.
   The measurement was out by three millimetres.

intj

1. (procedure word, especially military) A radio procedure word meaning that the station is finished with its transmission and does not expect a response.
   Destruction. Two T-72s destroyed. Three foot mobiles down. Out.
   [Galactic Federation official]: 'Does Samus suspect anything?' / Ship AI: 'No, I do not think so.' / [Galactic Federation official]: 'Good. Monitor her closely.' / Ship AI: 'Affirmative. Out.' 18 November 2002, Nintendo R&D1, Metroid Fusion, Nintendo, Game Boy Advance, scene: dispatch
2. Get out; begone; away!