Word.ws English Dictionary

in the open

in the open prepositional phrase: outdoors.

Prepositional phrase

  1. Outdoors.
    • I find I can breathe more easily when I'm out in the open.
    • These locomotives have been stored under cover at places as far apart as Arbroath and Crianlarich, but at present seven of them, four from Haymarket and three from Eastfield, are standing in the open at Longniddry.1958 May, “Notes and News: Locomotive Notes: Scottish Region”, in Railway Magazine, page 363
  2. Easily visible; out of shelter or concealment.
    • I got a clear photo of them when they finally came out in the open.
  3. Known to various people.
    • Now that everyone knows, I'm glad it's finally out in the open.

Antonyms of in the open

Questions about in the open

What does in the open mean?
In the open means outdoors.
What part of speech is in the open?
In the open is a prepositional phrase.

Words near in the open in the dictionary

  1. in the nuddie
  2. in the nuddy
  3. in the nude
  4. in the offing
  5. in the old times
  6. in the open
  7. in the original German
  8. in the oven
  9. in the palm of one's hand
  10. in the pay of
  11. in the person of

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: in the open (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-in the open.wav.

Cite this entry: “in the open.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/in_the_open. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.