Word.ws English Dictionary

out of the gate

out of the gate prepositional phrase: at or from the very beginning; from the outset; immediately upon starting.

Prepositional phrase

  1. (idiomatic) At or from the very beginning; from the outset; immediately upon starting.
    • If nicknames and partisan battles are inevitable, better to control branding out of the gate.2022 November 12, Matteo Wong, “How Did America End Up With the Z.O.M.B.I.E. Act?”, in The Atlantic
    Synonyms:
    off the bat

Synonyms of out of the gate

Forms of out of the gate

alternative formout of the starting gate
alternative formout the gate
alternative formout the starting gate
alternative formright out of the gate
alternative formright out the gate
alternative formstraight out of the gate
alternative formstraight out the gate

Origin of out of the gate

Analogy from various sports and activities, such as hound racing and bull-riding.

Questions about out of the gate

What does out of the gate mean?
Out of the gate means at or from the very beginning; from the outset; immediately upon starting.
What part of speech is out of the gate?
Out of the gate is a prepositional phrase.

Words near out of the gate in the dictionary

  1. out of the chute
  2. out of the common
  3. out of the corner of one's eye
  4. out of the frying pan and into the fire
  5. out of the frying pan, into the fire
  6. out of the gate
  7. out of the goodness of one's heart
  8. out of the loop
  9. out of the money
  10. out of the mouths of babes
  11. out of the mouths of babes and sucklings

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: out of the gate (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: “out of the gate.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/out_of_the_gate. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.