outrance
/ˈuː.tɹɑ̃s/
outrance noun: the furthest degree or extremity, going beyond bounds or propriety.
Noun
outrance (usually uncountable, plural outrances)
- The furthest degree or extremity, going beyond bounds or propriety.
- 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
- 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)
- Synonyms:
- utterance
Synonyms of outrance
Forms of outrance
| plural | outrances |
|---|
Origin of outrance
From Old French oltrance (modern outrance (“excess”)), from outrer (“pass beyond”), from oltre, outre, utre, from Late Latin ultra-. Compare outrage.
Phrases with outrance
Questions about outrance
- What does outrance mean?
- Outrance means the furthest degree or extremity, going beyond bounds or propriety.
- What part of speech is outrance?
- Outrance is a noun.
- How do you pronounce outrance?
- Outrance is pronounced /ˈuː.tɹɑ̃s/.
- What is the plural of outrance?
- The plural of outrance is outrances.
Words near outrance in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: outrance (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: “outrance.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/outrance. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.