Dictionary

on the outs en · ADP

Pronunciation

• (Australia) audio

Meanings

1. (US, idiomatic) On unfriendly terms; estranged.
   • 1977-1980, Lou Sullivan, personal diary, quoted in 2019, Ellis Martin, Zach Ozma (editors), We Both Laughed In Pleasure He's staying at my place because he & Bridg are on the outs.
   • The fact that he and her sister seemed to be more on the outs than ever may have been half her motivation in leaving the door open a crack. 2003, John Wingspread Howell, Naked in Church, page 409:
   • A second ill of this day lies in the trend of getting more and more on the outs with those who have been more successful than we. 1964, John Anton Dahl, Student, School, and Society: Crosscurrents in Secondary Education, page 83:
   • I marvel that a mind on the outs with itself should have nevertheless made a painstaking record of its every tremor. 1961, Joan Didion, “On Self-Respect”, in Slouching Towards Bethlehem:
   • "The first country, Nicaragua, was a give-away," noted one State Department observer, referring to the GSP review of the country most on the outs with the administration. 1998, Henry J. Frundt, Trade Conditions and Labor Rights: U.S. Initiatives, Dominican and Central ..., page 68:

Relateds

on the outside, looking in

Synonyms

at odds