Dictionary

outbuild en · VERB

Etymology

From out- + build.

Meanings

1. (transitive) To build more or better than.
   • We are being completely outbuilt in terms of ships, by the Chinese, and yet this Secretary of the Navy has been focused on climate change, not building ships and lethality. 2025 January 14, Pete Hegseth, quotee, “TO CONDUCT A CONFIRMATION HEARING ON THE EXPECTED NOMINATION OF MR. PETER B. HEGSETH TO BE SECRETARY OF DEFENSE”, in United States Senate:
   • But they also have a broader mission. It's to renew the promise of American manufacturing, to help make sure America remains in this century what we were in the last, a country that makes things, a country that outbuilds and outinnovates the rest of the world. 2011 June 25, “The President's Weekly Address”, in GovInfo:
   • “Each time they’d build, they’d try to outbuild all the rest of them,” said Dr. Randall F. Hipple, a retired obstetrician who helped establish a seven-block stretch of the street as a National Historic District. 2007 July 20, Dave Caldwell, “Williamsport, Pa.: Home of True Small Ball”, in The New York Times:
   • That’s what companies like Orion are doing, and that’s how America will win the future: by outinnovating, outeducating, and outbuilding our competitors. 2011 January 29, “The President's Weekly Address”, in GovInfo:

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