walk out

Verb

walk out (third-person singular simple present walks out, present participle walking out, simple past and past participle walked out)

1. (intransitive, labour) To stage a walkout or strike.
   • Postal workers are set to walk out tomorrow if contract negotiations fail.
   • While the RMT and ScotRail bash heads over the pay freeze, RMT guards based at Glasgow Central are already walking out, with strikes planned [...] in a dispute over "abuse of disciplinary procedures".2020 December 2, Philip Haigh, “A winter of discontent caused by threat of union action”, in Rail, page 62

   Synonyms:

   strike, go on strike, walk off the job, walk

2. (intransitive) To leave suddenly, especially as a form of protest.
3. (dated, intransitive) To go out with; to be romantically involved.
   • The maidservant has been walking out with the butcher’s man.
   • Well, her an' your boy Al, they're a-walkin' out ever' night. An' Aggie’s a good healthy girl that oughta have a husban', else she might git in trouble.1939 April 14, John Steinbeck, chapter 28, in The Grapes of Wrath, New York, N.Y.: The Viking Press, →OCLC, page 438

   Synonyms:

   date, go out, see

4. (intransitive, obsolete) To go for a walk outdoors; to go out.
   • [The Umbrella] kept off the Sun so effectually, that I could walk out in the hottest of the Weather with greater Advantage than I could before in the coolest, and when I had no need of it, cou’d close it and carry it under my Arm.1719 May 6 (Gregorian calendar), [Daniel Defoe], The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, […], London: […] W[illiam] Taylor […], →OCLC, page 160
   • The Turks are said to hear with wonder a proposal to walk out, only that they may walk back; and enquire, why any man should labour for nothing:1751, Samuel Johnson, The Rambler, No. 118, 4 May, 1751, Volume 4, London: J. Payne and J. Bouquet, 1752, p. 161
5. (transitive) To accompany (someone) as they leave a house or other building.
6. (transitive) To continue or persist in carrying (something) out or following through (with something); to persevere.
   • Too many of us want to believe God for a miracle rather than trust him to bring us through. For some situations, healing takes time, and we have just got to walk it out.2013, Linda Mobley, Sold Out: My Journey to a More Intimate Relationship with God
7. (transitive) To step away with when carrying the weight in order not to hit the rack it was lifted off from during execution of the exercise.

   Antonyms:

   walk in