Word.ws English Dictionary

on the way out

on the way out prepositional phrase: in the process of leaving.

Prepositional phrase

  1. In the process of leaving.
    • Quick! She's already on the way out!
  2. As someone is leaving.
    • He shook my hand on the way out.
  3. (informal) Going out of fashion.
    • This trend is on its way out.
    • The traditional British signal is on its way out. Unsentimental officials will doubtless decree colour-lights from Kings Cross to Waverley, and from Paddington to Penzance, with upper quadrants on minor branches.1957 June, S. C. Crowther-Smith, “Lower Quadrant”, in Railway Magazine, pages 422, 423
  4. (euphemistic, informal) Dying.

Questions about on the way out

What does on the way out mean?
On the way out means in the process of leaving.
What part of speech is on the way out?
On the way out is a prepositional phrase.

Words near on the way out in the dictionary

  1. on the warpath
  2. on the watch
  3. on the water cart
  4. on the water wagon
  5. on the way
  6. on the way out
  7. on the whole
  8. on the wind
  9. on the wing
  10. on the wings of the wind
  11. on the wrong foot

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: on the way out (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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Cite this entry: “on the way out.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/on_the_way_out. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.