Word.ws English Dictionary

three strikes and you're out

three strikes and you're out phrase: three mistakes, rule breaches etc. will result in termination, disqualification or similar.

Phrase

three strikes and you're out

  1. Three mistakes, rule breaches etc. will result in termination, disqualification or similar.

Origin of three strikes and you're out

Figurative extension of the literal origin in baseball, where either three strikes or four balls retire the batter.

Words formed from three strikes and you're out

Questions about three strikes and you're out

What does three strikes and you're out mean?
Three strikes and you're out means three mistakes, rule breaches etc. will result in termination, disqualification or similar.
What part of speech is three strikes and you're out?
Three strikes and you're out is a phrase.

Words near three strikes and you're out in the dictionary

  1. three skips of a louse
  2. three squares
  3. three stars
  4. Three Stooges
  5. three stops short of Dagenham
  6. three strikes and you're out
  7. Three T's
  8. three thousand
  9. three times a charm
  10. three times three
  11. three togethers

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: three strikes and you're 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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-three strikes and you're out.wav.

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