outlines

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of outline.

   She compared the outlines of both proposals before choosing one.

   The teacher handed back our essay outlines with detailed notes.

   Note

   The plural covers both halves of the noun: the drawn edges of shapes and figures, and the summaries and preliminary plans a writer works from. Context usually settles which is meant. The outlines of hills are seen, but essay outlines are written. The same spelling also serves as the present-tense verb, so a phrase like report outlines can be read as a compound noun or as a subject and its verb.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present indicative of outline.

   The report outlines the main risks facing the company this year.

   Each chapter outlines a new stage in the historical conflict.

   Note

   Every use of the verb is transitive, so something always follows it: a plan outlines its goals, a speaker outlines the problem. Besides drawing and summarizing, the verb has a narrow programming use. There, a developer or tool outlines code by replacing repeated fragments with calls to a single function, which shrinks the size of the program.

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