Word.ws English Dictionary

on the outs

on the outs prepositional phrase: on unfriendly terms; estranged.

Prepositional phrase

  1. (US, idiomatic) On unfriendly terms; estranged.
    • 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
    • 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
    Synonyms:
    at odds

Examples of on the outs in a sentence

  • "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:
  • 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:

Synonyms of on the outs

Questions about on the outs

What does on the outs mean?
On the outs means on unfriendly terms; estranged.
How do you use on the outs in a sentence?
"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.
What part of speech is on the outs?
On the outs is a prepositional phrase.

Words near on the outs in the dictionary

  1. on the other hand
  2. on the other paw
  3. on the other side of
  4. on the otherhand
  5. on the outlook
  6. on the outs
  7. on the outside
  8. on the outside looking in
  9. on the outside, looking in
  10. on the pad
  11. on the panel

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: on the outs (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: En-au-on the outs.ogg.

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