outsider
Pluraloutsiders
- 1A nonmember of a particular group, community, or organization.
The club's rules were clear to members and baffling to any outsider.
We were the only outsiders allowed inside the prison that month.
Similarstranger, foreigner, outlander, nonresident, alien
Note
Built in plain sight from outside plus -er: the person standing on the outside of a group. It is usually pinned on others, yet it can be claimed, as George Carlin does in When Will Jesus Bring the Pork Chops? (2004): "I'm an outsider by choice, but not truly." Stranger is close, but stranger is about being unknown and outsider about not belonging, so a familiar face can still be an outsider.
- 2In a contest or race, a competitor thought to have little chance of winning.
The horse started as a rank outsider and paid forty to one.
Pollsters had written the candidate off as an outsider until the debate.
Similarunderdog
Oppositefavorite, front-runner
Note
A judgment about the odds, made before the contest starts. The word stays true even when the result upsets it: a fighter rated an outsider at a karate tournament who battles through to second place was still an outsider going in. Underdog, long shot and dark horse keep it company, and like them it describes expectation, not outcome.
- 3Someone new to an organization or community who has little or no experience of it.
The board chose an outsider from the tech industry to shake up the bank.
Every few years the party rediscovers the appeal of a political outsider.
Similarnewcomer, newbie, incomer, entrant
Note
Here the outsider has come in but has not yet learned the ropes, which is what separates it from the not-belonging meaning. In politics that inexperience is often sold as a virtue: voters weary of the mess career politicians have made begin to prefer outsiders, and the label turns from a slight into a campaign asset.
Less common meaning
- 4Either of the two crusty end pieces of a loaf of bread.
Note
The bread sense is rare and homely, naming the end slice for the crust that faces outward. Heel or end is the usual choice and will be understood more readily, since outsider almost always means a person, as in the everyday sense. Use it only where the bread is already in view, at the table or the breadboard.
Practice
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Origin
Formed from "outside" combined with the suffix "-er".