OUT OF PLACE

Pronunciation (US):

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does out of place mean? 

• OUT OF PLACE (adjective)
  The adjective OUT OF PLACE has 1 sense:

1. of an inappropriate or misapplied nature

  Familiarity information: OUT OF PLACE used as an adjective is very rare.

• OUT OF PLACE (adverb)
  The adverb OUT OF PLACE has 1 sense:

1. in a setting where one is or feels inappropriate or incongruous

  Familiarity information: OUT OF PLACE used as an adverb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• OUT OF PLACE (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Of an inappropriate or misapplied nature

Synonyms:

inapposite; out of place

Similar:

malapropos (of an inappropriate or incorrectly applied nature)

• OUT OF PLACE (adverb)

Sense 1

Meaning:

In a setting where one is or feels inappropriate or incongruous

Context example:

he felt out of place in the lingerie shop

 Context examples 

A fine lady in a country parsonage was quite out of place.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

Both men were manifestly out of place, and why such as they should adventure the North is part of the mystery of things that passes understanding.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

He wore rough clothes that smacked of the sea, and he was manifestly out of place in the spacious hall in which he found himself.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

They can pull sections of the intestines out of place.

(Adhesions, NIH: National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases)

When we have finished at the police-station I think that something nutritious at Simpson’s would not be out of place.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Amid the dark streets and brick houses there was something out of place in their appearance, as when the sea-gulls, driven by stress of weather, are seen in the Midland shires.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Dislocated joints often are swollen, very painful and visibly out of place.

(Dislocations, NIH)

I'm a frontiersman from the extreme edge of the Knowable, and I feel quite out of place when I leave my study and come into touch with all you great, rough, hulking creatures.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

He was dining with the Randalls family, and Jane, at the Eltons'; and he had seen a look, more than a single look, at Miss Fairfax, which, from the admirer of Miss Woodhouse, seemed somewhat out of place.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

He was a young schoolmaster out of place when he was first taken up by my father, but he was a man of great energy and character, and he soon became quite invaluable in the household.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)