outfit

Pluraloutfits

Formsoutfits, outfitting, outfitted

1. 1
   nouncountable

   A coordinated set of clothing, often including matching accessories.

   She wore a stunning outfit to the awards ceremony.

   The boutique sells complete outfits for every season.

   Similarensemble, getup

   Note

   The noun turns the phrasal verb fit out on its head: what you are fitted out in became an out-fit, a hyphenated spelling that later closed up. With clothing, the word implies pieces chosen to work together, so matching accessories belong to it naturally. A purse and shoes count as part of the outfit, not as additions to it.

2. 2
   nouncountable

   A set of articles or tools assembled for a particular purpose.

   The expedition packed a complete survival outfit before setting off.

   Each diver received an outfit of mask, fins, and tank.

   Similarkit, set

3. 3
   verbtransitive

   To supply a person or place with the equipment needed for a particular purpose.

   The charity outfits homeless families with warm winter coats.

   Volunteers outfit the shelter with beds and blankets each fall.

   Similarequip, supply, furnish, provide

   Note

   The verb doubles its final t: outfitted, outfitting. It takes the person or place being supplied as its object and puts the supplies after with, as in outfit a shelter with beds. It is also common in the passive, as when an expedition is outfitted with food and clothing.

4. 4
   nouncountable

   A cohesive group of people working as a single unit, such as a military company.

   The sergeant praised his outfit for its discipline under fire.

   She runs a tight outfit of researchers on the night shift.

   Similarunit, team, crew, squad, company

5. 5
   nouncolloquialcountable

   A business or commercial firm, in casual usage.

   She left a big corporation to join a small consulting outfit.

   The catering outfit handled three weddings that weekend.

   Similarfirm, company, business, operation, organization

6. 6
   nouncountable

   A team of players competing in a particular sport.

   The coach rebuilt the outfit after a disappointing season.

   That outfit reached the finals three years running.

   Similarteam, side, squad, club

   Note

   Sports writing reaches for the word as a fresh way to say team or club, usually with a qualifier that places the side. Jamie Lillywhite, reporting for BBC Sport in 2011, called Rubin Kazan "a seasoned Champions League outfit." The pattern is an adjective, then a competition or league, then outfit. It suits a match report where team has already been used twice.

7. 7
   nounhistoricalCanadacountable

   In the Hudson's Bay Company's fur trade, a business year, or the supplies needed for one.

   Clerks recorded every pelt traded during the 1840 outfit.

   The factor requested a larger outfit to supply the northern posts.

   Note

   A fur-trade accounting word, used when writing about the Hudson's Bay Company in Canada's past. Years were reckoned as outfits: The Financial Papers of Dr. John McLoughlin (1949) record that "the outfit of 1821" suffered a loss. The phrase outfit of plus a year marks a trading season. The same word could also mean that season's supplies, close to the "gear" meaning.

8. 8
   nouncountable or uncountable

   A fit statistic that is especially sensitive to outlying, unexpected observations.

   A large outfit flagged the item for closer review.

   Analysts reported both infit and outfit for each question.

   Oppositeinfit

   Note

   A Rasch-measurement statistic that always travels with its partner, infit. Both are mean squares of standardized residuals, but this one is unweighted. A single surprising response far from a person's or item's measure therefore pulls it hard, while infit weights by information and stays calmer. Analysts report the pair together, and a large value flags a question for review.

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