OUTPOST

Pronunciation (US):

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IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does outpost mean? 

• OUTPOST (noun)
  The noun OUTPOST has 3 senses:

1. a station in a remote or sparsely populated location

2. a settlement on the frontier of civilization

3. a military post stationed at a distance from the main body of troops

  Familiarity information: OUTPOST used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• OUTPOST (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A station in a remote or sparsely populated location

Classified under:

Nouns denoting spatial position

Synonyms:

outpost; outstation

Hypernyms ("outpost" is a kind of...):

post; station (the position where someone (as a guard or sentry) stands or is assigned to stand)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A settlement on the frontier of civilization

Classified under:

Nouns denoting groupings of people or objects

Synonyms:

frontier settlement; outpost

Hypernyms ("outpost" is a kind of...):

colony; settlement (a body of people who settle far from home but maintain ties with their homeland; inhabitants remain nationals of their home state but are not literally under the home state's system of government)

Sense 3

Meaning:

A military post stationed at a distance from the main body of troops

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("outpost" is a kind of...):

military post; post (military installation at which a body of troops is stationed)

Domain category:

armed forces; armed services; military; military machine; war machine (the military forces of a nation)

 Context examples 

He was marred and scarred by that mysterious world of rough men and rougher deeds, the outposts of which began beyond her horizon.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

Very quiet and still they lay, save for a muttered jest or whispered order, for twice during the long morning they heard bugle-calls from amid the hills on either side of them, which showed that they had thrust themselves in between the outposts of the enemy.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

He, by some wonder of vision, saw beyond the farthest outpost of empiricism, where was no language for narration, and yet, by some golden miracle of speech, investing known words with unknown significances, he conveyed to Martin's consciousness messages that were incommunicable to ordinary souls.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)