go out

phrasal verb · go-out noun

Formsgoes out, going out, went out, gone out

20 meanings of go out

1
socializephrasal verbidiomaticintransitive
To leave one's home and go somewhere public, especially for recreation or entertainment.
They rarely go out on weeknights now that the baby has arrived.
After the exam the whole class went out dancing to celebrate.
Similarsocialize
Note
The outing matters more than the destination: people go out to dinner, go out shopping, or simply go out tonight, and the opposite is staying in. What follows usually names a purpose, with to or an -ing form. The pattern is old; William Tyndale's New Testament of 1526 has a sower who went out to sow his seed.
2
exitphrasal verbintransitive
To leave a place, especially to exit a building.
Visitors must go out the same way they came in.
She went out onto the porch to get some air.
Similarleave, exit
Oppositeenter
3
datephrasal verbintransitive
Of two people, to have a romantic relationship built around dating each other; to be a couple.
They went out for two years before anyone at the office noticed.
Teenagers who go out with someone their parents dislike tend to keep it quiet.
Similardate
Note
Two constructions share the phrase: the couple as subject (Jack and Susan are going out) or one partner with the other (she is going out with him). It often runs in the progressive, since it names a state still going on, and it describes dating rather than marriage or a shared home, so a couple can go out for years and still live apart.
4
stop burningphrasal verbintransitive
To stop burning or shining; to be extinguished or switched off.
The campfire went out sometime after midnight.
Streetlights go out automatically when the sun comes up.
Similardie
5
sympathyphrasal verbintransitive
Of one's heart or thoughts, to be directed toward someone in sympathy or goodwill.
Her heart went out to the exhausted nurses on the night shift.
Our sympathies go out to the families who lost their homes in the fire.
Note
The subject is something of the person's rather than the person: a heart, thoughts, sympathies, prayers, with the receiver after to. Our thoughts and prayers go out to those afflicted is the set wording of public condolence, while my heart went out to her tells of one person's private feeling.
6
tidephrasal verbintransitive
Of the tide, to recede from the shore; to ebb.
The tide went out so far that the boats sat on the mud.
Fishermen wait for the tide to go out before checking the traps.
Similarebb, recede
Oppositerise
7
be eliminatedphrasal verbintransitive
To lose a place in a competition and take no further part in it.
The defending champions went out in the quarterfinals to a team nobody had heard of.
Half the entrants go out before the televised rounds even begin.
Similarlose
Oppositeadvance
8
faintphrasal verbintransitive
To lose consciousness; to pass out.
One clean punch and the challenger went out before he hit the canvas.
Patients sometimes go out for a moment when they stand up too fast.
Similarfaint
9
out of stylephrasal verbintransitive
To cease to be fashionable; to pass out of style.
Shoulder pads went out with the eighties and show no sign of returning.
Slang words go out as quickly as they arrive.
Note
Its partner is come in: fashions come in and go out. A favorite pattern names the company a thing left with, as when Stephen Fry's The Liar (1991) has blubbing going out with decent and ripping, a whole stock of 1920s schoolboy slang retired at once. Clothes, words and manners all qualify.
10
give wayphrasal verbcolloquialintransitive
To stop working or give way; to fail.
Her knee went out on her halfway through the marathon.
Transmissions on that model tend to go out around a hundred thousand miles.
Similarfail, buckle
Note
The person let down follows with on: my knee went out on me. That on casts the speaker as the victim of a part that gives way without warning, whether a knee or a transmission. It belongs to casual speech, and in writing the plainer words are fail or give way.

11
drain awayphrasal verbintransitive
Of a quality or feeling, to drain away from someone or something and disappear.
Once the goalkeeper was sent off, the belief went out of the whole team.
Something seemed to go out of her voice when she mentioned her brother.
Similardrain, vanish, disappear, fade
12
broadcastphrasal verbUKintransitive
Of a television or radio program, to be broadcast or transmitted.
The programme goes out at eight, straight after the news.
Episodes that went out in the 1970s have been remastered for the box set.
Similarair, broadcast
Note
Broadcasters in Britain say it of the program or the episode itself, not of the channel, and a time or day usually follows: the first episode goes out on Saturday, the program goes out at eight, straight after the news.
13
die (person)phrasal verbintransitive
To die; to reach the end of one's life.
She went out the way she had lived, arguing with the nurses to the last.
Nobody gets to choose how they go out, but he came close.
Similardie
14
stop existingphrasal verbintransitive
To come to an end; to become extinct or expire.
Many traditions went out with the generation that kept them.
The dynasty went out in a single disastrous winter.
Similardie, end, expire, vanish
15
final songphrasal verbintransitivewith on
To finish a show or a broadcast with a particular song or item, used with on.
Every episode goes out on the same closing theme.
Let's go out on something upbeat, since it's Friday.
Similarend, close, finish
Oppositeopen
Note
On is required, and it carries whatever closes the show: which song should we go out on? Presenters and bands say it of themselves as readily as of the program. Without that on and its closing item, the same verb said of a program means only that it is broadcast.
16
card gamesphrasal verbintransitive
In card games, to get rid of the last cards in one's hand by discarding or melding them.
She went out by melding her last three cards and caught the whole table with full hands.
In most rummy games you cannot go out while holding an unmatched card.
Note
Rummy-style games such as canasta end a hand this way: the player who goes out lays down or discards every last card, and the others are caught holding theirs. Rules differ on what must already be on the table, so choosing the moment to go out is much of the strategy, as when a player builds two canastas first.
17
surf sessionnoun · go-outcountable
A session of surfing, bodyboarding, windsurfing, or a similar sport on the sea.
An early-morning go-out on glassy water is the best way to start a day.
She logged every one of her go-outs in a notebook: date, wave height, how long she stayed in.
18
dog trainingnoun · go-outcountable
In dog obedience training, an exercise in which the dog leaves the handler, runs to a target such as a white fence, turns, and sits.
A clean go-out means the dog travels straight to the far end of the ring without looking back.
She broke the go-out into small steps, rewarding the dog for every few feet.
Note
Competition obedience also calls this exercise a send-away, and it belongs to Utility work, where the sit at the end must be immediate. Trainers teach it as a skill in its own right: "Teaching the Go-Out", in the American Kennel Gazette of 1979, spread the lessons over eleven days, and practice sessions are spoken of as go-outs in the plural.
19
sluicenoun · go-outcountable
A sluice set in an embankment against the sea, through which water from the land is let out when the tide is out.
Each go-out was fitted with a door that the falling tide allowed the drainage men to open.
The go-outs along the Wash drained thousands of acres of fen into the sea.
Similarsluice
Note
Drainage country around Lincoln and Boston kept this word in the forms gowt and gote, which local writers explained as the go-out of a watercourse: an outfall, or a junction of two drains. It survives in local names such as the Gowts bridge at Lincoln and Pease-Gote Lane, and a Notes and Queries correspondent of 1871 heard it as a common word in those parts.
20
duelphrasal verbobsoleteintransitive
To take part in a duel, often with the opponent named after with.
He must go out or be under a social ban. Out they go accordingly, and the trained pistol-shot kills his civilian opponent.
1890, Cornhill Magazine
Note
Dueling had its own verb: a challenged man went out, usually with his opponent named after with. In John Moore's Zeluco (1789) a swordsman goes out with the Neapolitan at the first hint, and the Cornhill Magazine of 1890 sums up the pressure: he must go out or be under a social ban. Old fiction needs care, because the same words now mean dating.

Practice

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