Dictionary

outrance en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• /ˈuː.tɹɑ̃s/

Etymology

From Old French oltrance (modern outrance (“excess”)), from outrer (“pass beyond”), from oltre, outre, utre, from Late Latin ultra-. Compare outrage.

Meanings

1. (obsolete, uncountable, usually) The furthest degree or extremity, going beyond bounds or propriety.
   • For an ordinary joust there would have been a barrier: but in this case the fight was to be a outrance, which meant that it might end with swords on foot, and so the barrier was left out. 1958, T[erence] H[anbury] White, chapter 37, in The Once and Future King, New York, N.Y.: G. P. Putnam's Sons, →ISBN, book III (The Ill-Made Knight):
   • 1819: But if the shield was touched with the sharp end of the lance, the combat was understood to be at “outrance”, that is, the knights were to fight with sharp weapons, as in actual battle. — Walter Scott, Ivanhoe

Forms

Synonyms

utterance