OUTSIDER (outsider)

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

Irregular inflected form: outsider   

 Dictionary entry overview: What does outsider mean? 

• OUTSIDER (noun)
  The noun OUTSIDER has 2 senses:

1. someone who is excluded from or is not a member of a group

2. a contestant (human or animal) not considered to have a good chance to win

  Familiarity information: OUTSIDER used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• OUTSIDER (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Someone who is excluded from or is not a member of a group

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

foreigner; outsider

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

alien; stranger; unknown (anyone who does not belong in the environment in which they are found)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "outsider"):

transalpine (one living on or coming from the other side of the Alps from Italy)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A contestant (human or animal) not considered to have a good chance to win

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

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

contestant (a person who participates in competitions)

 Context examples 

It is difficult to imagine, then, how an outsider could have made so terrible an impression upon the company, nor have we found any possible motive for so strange and elaborate an attempt.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

As our house now wanted business on any terms, we joined this noble band; and threw out lures to the hangers-on and outsiders, to bring their business to us.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

We are too partial, but the praise and blame of outsiders will prove useful, even if she gets but little money.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

This outsider had to take originals.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

All this time we, the outsiders, remained oppressed by the tremendous interests involved in the conversation; and our host regarded us with pride, as the victims of a salutary awe and astonishment.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

To outsiders the five energetic women seemed to rule the house, and so they did in many things, but the quiet scholar, sitting among his books, was still the head of the family, the household conscience, anchor, and comforter, for to him the busy, anxious women always turned in troublous times, finding him, in the truest sense of those sacred words, husband and father.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

Among this correspondence, there dropped in, every now and then, an obliging proposal from one of the numerous outsiders always lurking about the Commons, to practise under cover of my name (if I would take the necessary steps remaining to make a proctor of myself), and pay me a percentage on the profits.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

One of our clerks, who was an outsider, used, in the height of this contest, to sit with his hat on, that he might be ready to rush out and swear before a surrogate any victim who was brought in.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

There were a number of hangers-on and outsiders about the Commons, who, without being proctors themselves, dabbled in common-form business, and got it done by real proctors, who lent their names in consideration of a share in the spoil;—and there were a good many of these too.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)