outsiders
- 1Plural of outsider.
The committee rarely listens to outsiders who question its decisions.
To the villagers, the travelers were outsiders who did not understand local customs.
Note
A regular plural that carries every meaning of the singular: people outside a group, newcomers still learning its ways, long shots in a race or contest, and, rarely, the heel ends of a loaf. Context usually settles which one is meant. The same spelling also names a single tool, the key-turning nippers, which takes plural form even when there is only one.
- 2A pair of nippers used to grip and turn a key left in a keyhole from the outside.
A thief might use outsiders to twist a key left in the lock from the hallway.
The old locksmith reached for his outsiders when the key would not budge from the outside.
Note
Like pliers and tongs, this tool exists only in the plural. A single one is "a pair of outsiders," and it takes a plural verb. Its company is telling: Cases Determined by the St. Louis, Kansas City and Springfield Courts of Appeals (1885) records a pistol, a billy and a pair of outsiders found under a wagon seat.
outsiders is a form of outsider
outsider, noun: A nonmember of a particular group, community, or organization. Full entry
- Forms
- outsideroutsiders plural
- Spelling
- outsider → outsiders: add -s
- Sound
- The ending sounds like /z/.
Use it in a sentence
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