sub out
sub out verb: to replace with a substitute: to substitute (something or someone).
Verb
sub out (third-person singular simple present subs out, present participle subbing out, simple past and past participle subbed out)
- To replace with a substitute: to substitute (something or someone).
- It's this single word also that Dickenson's editors subbed out for the 1896 edition of her poems, rendering the line instead, “But sequence ravelled out of reach / like balls upon a floor.”2010, Kazim Ali, Orange Alert, page 183
- I've listed sample habits to demonstrate how you might sub out an unproductive one with a productive one.2013, Karen Elizaga, Find Your Sweet Spot, page 87
- To hire a subcontractor (to complete a task): to subcontract (something).
- Near-synonym: farm out
- On the other hand, we sub out all our basement excavation work simply because we found an expert sub who could beat our costs.1963, House & Home - Volume 24, page 122
- Synonyms:
- farm out
Synonyms of sub out
Forms of sub out
| third-person singular present | subs out |
|---|---|
| present participle | subbing out |
| past participle | subbed out |
| past | subbed out |
Origin of sub out
Short for substitute out or subcontract out
Questions about sub out
- What does sub out mean?
- Sub out means to replace with a substitute: to substitute (something or someone).
- What part of speech is sub out?
- Sub out is a verb.
- What is the past tense of sub out?
- The past tense of sub out is subbed out.
Words near sub out in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: sub 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.
Last updated:
Cite this entry: “sub out.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sub_out. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.