outer

Outside; external.

Adjective

  1. Outside; external.
  2. Farther from the centre of the inside.
    • Nanny Broome was looking up at the outer wall. Just under the ceiling there were three lunette windows, heavily barred and blacked out in the normal way by centuries of grime. Their bases were on a level with the...

Origin

From Middle English outre, outer, outter, uttre, from Old English ūtre, ūtera, ūterra (“outer”), equivalent to out + -er. Compare German äußere (“outer”), Danish ydre (“outer”), Swedish yttre (“outer”), Icelandic ytri (“outer”). Piecewise doublet of utter.

Forms

outermore outermost outmost

Antonyms

inner

Derived

outerchange outercoat outercourse outering outer limit outerly Outer Manchuria outer mantle Outer Mongolia outerness outer phalangeal cell outerplanar outer semidirect product outerside outer space outer totalistic outerwear outerweb

Adjective comparative, form of

  1. comparative form of out (“(more) open about one's sexuality, etc”): more out
    • And 'I like to wear a silly hat; I get camper by the hour. I'm Will Young and I'm gay. Did you know I was gay? I hid it for a while. But now I'm out, I'm outer than you would believe'.[…] - 2020 September 3, Will Young,...
    • […] outer-than-out literary lions like Edmund White and David Ehrenstein would later note, this final proof that the[…] - 2016 July 14, Telly Davidson, Culture War: How the '90s Made Us Who We Are Today (Whether We Like...
    • John rightly deplores any sign of an "outer-than-thou❞ smugness in my occasionally critical attitude to his decision not to disclose his sexual identity to his parents. […] Outness, I've come to realize, is not an...

Origin

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *úd Proto-Germanic *ūt Proto-West Germanic *ūt Old English ūt ▲ Proto-Germanic *ūt Proto-Germanic *-ai Proto-Germanic *ūtai Proto-West Germanic *ūtē Old English ūte Middle English oute English out (adjective) English -er English outer From out (adjective) + -er (“comparative suffix”).

Noun Entry 3

  1. An outer part.
    • 'Phil Cornish' [a snowdrop variety] is like a cross between a pixie hat and a pagoda, with elegant upswept outers [outer petals] marked in a green colour-wash at the top and warpaint slashes at the lower end. - 2015...
  2. An uncovered section of the seating at a stadium or sportsground.
  3. The fourth circle on a target, outside the inner and magpie.
  4. A shot which strikes the outer of a target.
  5. The smallest single unit sold by wholesalers to retailers, usually one retail display box.
    • We ordered two cartons with twelve outers in each.

Forms

outers

Noun Entry 4

  1. Someone who admits to something publicly.
  2. Someone who outs another.
    • From the early 90s, these were some of the fiercest debates raging in the gay press and in gay and straight bars worldwide as blabbermouths blabbed, sometimes just for the sheer hell of it, and gay celebrities ran for...
  3. One who puts out, ousts, or expels.
  4. An ouster; dispossession.
  5. One who supports leaving the European Union.
    • The 51.4 per cent to 48.6 per cent victory of the "outers" broke the back of the Labour government. - 2013 January 25, Jon Cruddas, “Au Revoir, Europe: What If Britain Left the EU? by David Charter”, in The Independent:
    • Meanwhile, outers are disporting themselves on TV in luminous green ties, hand-woven by first years at the Dronefield Academy for the Sartorially Challenged. - 2016 February 16, Robert Shrimsley, “Gimme a Brexit break”,...

Origin

out (verb) + -er (“agent suffix”)

Forms

outers

Synonyms

Brexiter informant

Antonyms

inner

Derived

all-outer come-outer down-and-outer full outer join left outer join locator outer marker maker-outer out-and-outer outer arm outer automorphism outer bar outer borough outer class outer core outer ear outer garment outer join outer lips outer marker outer measure outer planet outer product outer regular outer Solar System