outgo
Verboutgoes, outgoing, outwent, outgone
Formsoutgoes, outgoing, outwent, outgone
- 1A cost, expense, or amount of money paid out, especially in business accounts.
The treasurer weighed the club's income against its outgo before planning next year's events.
After rent and wages, the shop's outgoes left almost no profit.
Similaroutgoing
Oppositeincome, receipts, takings
Note
Money going out is always reckoned against money coming in, so income and outgo work as a fixed pair. Emerson located success in "the relation of income to outgo" (1860), and Justice McKenna defined net income as the difference between the two in 1918. Thoreau tallied his "farm outgoes" in Walden. The plural is outgoes or outgos. Outside India the word sounds archaic, and expenditure or outlay is the everyday choice.
- 2The act or process of going out; also a single instance of going out.
The outgo of the crowd after the match clogged every exit for an hour.
Each outgo of breath fogged the cold window beside her.
Similardeparture, exit, outflow
Oppositearrival, entrance, influx, inflow
Note
Outward movement is often set beside its opposite. Justice Robert H. Jackson wrote in 1949 of "a constant influx of cloth and outgo of garments." As a mass noun it names the flow itself. As a count noun it names a single departure: John Taber asked in 1946 about "a lot of deliveries and no outgoes." Its natural partners are influx, inflow and incoming.
- 3To go out; to set forth or set out on a journey.
At daybreak the pilgrims outgo toward the distant shrine.
Brave hearts outgo to meet the gathering storm.
Note
The literal meaning sits closest to the word's roots: Middle English outgon and Old English ūtgān meant "to go out," built from out- and go. It takes no object, unlike the senses of overtaking and surpassing. It lingers in regional speech and in verse, as in James Russell Lowell's "outgoeth the great gun" (1845) and John Bragg's "the light of life ever outgoeth" (1890). Outside poetry, go out or set out is safer.
- 4To go further than someone or something; to exceed or surpass.
His ambition outgoes his talent by a wide margin.
As the infamy of the conduct of Rhode Island outgoes all precedent, so the influence of her counsels can be of no prejudice.
1788, George Washington, “Gᵒ. Washington to Jonathⁿ. Trumbull Esqʳ.”Similaroutdo
Note
Spenser and Marlowe used this verb for surpassing, and it now survives only as an archaism. Its past tense is outwent, following go and went: Spenser's shepherd sang songs "wherein he all outwent," and Calvin's sermon of 1577 says God "outgoeth all our prayers." Keep it for a deliberately old-fashioned ring. In ordinary prose, outdo or exceed is the natural choice.
- 5To exceed reasonable limits or attempt more than one can manage.
But John / (Our Friend) Molleſſon, / Thought us to have out-gone / VVith a quaint Invention.
1668, John Denham, “On My Lord Croft’s and My Journey into Poland, from whence We Brought 10000 l. for His Majesty by the Decimation of His…Note
Overreaching is the idea: carrying on past the point where it was wise to stop. It takes no object. One simply goes too far, rather than going beyond someone else as in the "surpass" meaning. John Denham's verse on his journey into Poland (1668) uses the hyphenated past participle, "Thought us to have out-gone / With a quaint Invention." The sense is obsolete, and overreach or overextend says it today.
- 6To go faster than someone or something, leaving them behind or passing them.
Her swift mare outgoes every rider on the moor.
VVhat, ſhall vve talk further vvith him? or out-go him at preſent? and ſo leave him to think of vvhat he hath heard already; and then ſtop again for him aftervvards, and ſee if by degrees vve can do any good of him?
1678, John Bunyan, The Pilgrim’s Progress from This WorldSimilaroutrun, pass, outdistance
Note
Speed is the point of this sense: whoever outgoes another leaves them behind on the road. Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress (1678) uses it plainly, "Christian and Hopeful outwent him," and also spells it out-go. Spenser's runaway damsel "both them farre outwent" on her palfrey. The race here is literal, not a contest of merit. The sense is obsolete, and outrun, outdistance or pass do its work now.
- 7To undergo, experience, or go through something.
So ſince the vvinged God his planet cleare, / began in me to moue, one yeare is ſpent: / the vvhich doth longer vnto me appeare, / then al thoſe fourty vvhich my life outvvent.
1595, Edmund Spenser, “[Amoretti.] Sonnet LX”Note
Here the verb means living through something, not getting past a rival. In Spenser's Amoretti (1595), one year of love feels longer "then al those fourty which my life outwent": the forty years he has lived. Read quickly, the line looks like the "surpass" meaning. The object tells them apart: time or trial endured, not a competitor beaten. The sense is obsolete, so use undergo or go through.
- 8A channel, opening, or other way out through which something flows or passes.
Every cistern needs an outgo to prevent overflow.
The great Salt Lake of Utah is its principal body of water, and this has no visible outgo, though richly fed from various quarters.
1869, Samuel Bowles, “Introductory Chapter”Note
Here the word names the way out rather than the going: a lake's exit, a drain's mouth. Samuel Bowles's Our New West (1869) says the Great Salt Lake "has no visible outgo." The Sanitary Engineer (1882) writes of "the outgos of main drain traps." The sense is now archaic, so in plumbing or geography today, outlet is the word to use.
- 9Whatever has flowed out from a source, or the quantity of it that has flowed out.
The dark outgo from the mine stained the riverbank for miles.
And the arms of the scale of intake and outgo must likewise remain at level, and they do so maintain balance in health.
1912, Linda Burfield Hazzard, “When and Why to Fast”Note
This sense names what has flowed out, not the flowing or the outlet. Linda Burfield Hazzard's Fasting for the Cure of Disease (1912) balances "intake and outgo" like the arms of a scale. The word also stretches to a figurative issue, close to outcome: Friedrich Bleek's "The Petrine Epistles" (1870) calls scorn "the outgo of the same frivolous mind." The sense is rare and obsolete, and outflow serves today.
Showing meanings only.
Practice
Can you tell the meanings of outgo apart? Answer 4 quick questions from this page, or write your own sentence and AI will check it.
Origin
The verb descends from Middle English outgon ('to go out, depart, escape'), from Old English ūtgān and Proto-West Germanic *ūtgān, being essentially out- + go. The noun is formed from out- + go, and the sense of 'cost or expenditure' was probably modelled on 'income'.