Word.ws English Dictionary

outstay one's welcome

outstay one's welcome verb: to stay as a guest longer than the host expected.

Verb

outstay one's welcome (third-person singular simple present outstays one's welcome, present participle outstaying one's welcome, simple past and past participle outstayed one's welcome)

  1. To stay as a guest longer than the host expected.
  2. (broadly) To become an unwelcome person because of embarrassing or antisocial behaviour.
    • “Do you often go looking for mice in other people's rooms?” “I wouldn't say often. Just when the spirit moves me, don't you know?” “I see. Well...” When people say “Well” to you like that, it usually means that they think you are outstaying your welcome and that the time has come to call it a day....1960, P. G. Wodehouse, Jeeves in the Offing, chapter VIII

Forms of outstay one's welcome

third-person singular presentoutstays one's welcome
present participleoutstaying one's welcome
past participleoutstayed one's welcome
pastoutstayed one's welcome

Questions about outstay one's welcome

What does outstay one's welcome mean?
Outstay one's welcome means to stay as a guest longer than the host expected.
What part of speech is outstay one's welcome?
Outstay one's welcome is a verb.
What is the past tense of outstay one's welcome?
The past tense of outstay one's welcome is outstayed one's welcome.

Words near outstay one's welcome in the dictionary

  1. outstature
  2. outstatured
  3. outstatures
  4. outstaturing
  5. outstay
  6. outstay one's welcome
  7. outstayed
  8. outstayer
  9. outstayers
  10. outstaying
  11. outstays

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: outstay one's welcome (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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