OUTGROW (outgrew, outgrown)

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

Irregular inflected forms: outgrew    , outgrown   

 Dictionary entry overview: What does outgrow mean? 

• OUTGROW (verb)
  The verb OUTGROW has 2 senses:

1. grow too large or too mature for

2. grow faster than

  Familiarity information: OUTGROW used as a verb is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• OUTGROW (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they outgrow    ... he / she / it outgrows   
Past simple: outgrew   
Past participle: outgrown   
-ing form: outgrowing   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Grow too large or too mature for

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Context example:

She outgrew her childish habits

Hypernyms (to "outgrow" is one way to...):

develop; grow (grow emotionally or mature)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something

Sense 2

Meaning:

Grow faster than

Classified under:

Verbs of fighting, athletic activities

Hypernyms (to "outgrow" is one way to...):

exceed; outdo; outgo; outmatch; outperform; outstrip; surmount; surpass (be or do something to a greater degree)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s somebody
Something ----s something

Sentence example:

Sam cannot outgrow Sue

 Context examples 

They don't do it on purpose, and most outgrow it.

(Bedwetting, NIH)

Since December 2017, you might have felt you don’t have enough room at home, that you have outgrown your space.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

Only an estimated 20% to 30% of children with sesame allergy outgrow it.

(17% of Food-Allergic Children Have Sesame Allergy, National Institutes of Health)

Let us thank God if we have outgrown their vices.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

If any thing could increase her delight, it was perceiving that the baby would soon have outgrown its first set of caps.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

The condition is most commonly seen in young children who typically outgrow the problem.

(Study in mice identifies type of brain cell involved in stuttering, National Institutes of Health)

Here it is, and we never can thank you enough for the patient sowing and reaping you have done, cried Jo, with the loving impetuosity which she never would outgrow.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

But there was one thing that he never outgrew—his growling.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

The world has outgrown them, and there is no place now for their strange fashions, their practical jokes, and carefully cultivated eccentricities.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

When I thought of the airy dreams of youth that are incapable of realization, I thought of the better state preceding manhood that I had outgrown; and then the contented days with Agnes, in the dear old house, arose before me, like spectres of the dead, that might have some renewal in another world, but never more could be reanimated here.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)