outgo
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˌaʊtˈɡəʊ/
ipa: /ˌaʊtˈɡoʊ/
rhymes: -əʊ
Forms: form: outgoes
form: outgoing
form: outwent
form: outgone
form: no-table-tags
form: glossary
form: outgo
form: outgo
form: outwent
form: outgo
form: outgoest
form: outwent
form: outwentst
form: outgoes
form: outgoeth
form: outwent
form: outgo
form: outwent
form: outgo
form: outwent
form: outgo
form: -
form: outgoing
form: outgone
form: out-go
Etymology: PIE word
 *úd
The verb is derived from Middle English outgon (“to go out, depart, leave; to come out, emerge; to escape; to protrude; of a sword: to be drawn; to emanate from (a place); to accompany”), from Old English ūtgān (“to go out”), Proto-West Germanic *ūtgān (“to go out”), equivalent to out- + go. See also go out.
Compare Middle English outwenden (“to go out, depart, leave; to escape; to be emitted, fly out from; of a weapon: to be drawn”), which, like modern outgo, had the past tense and past participle form outwent.
The noun is derived from modern English out- (prefix meaning ‘away from; toward the outside of’) + go. Sense 1 (“cost, expenditure, or outlay”) was probably modelled on income.
Cognates
* Scots outgae
* West Frisian útgean
* Dutch uitgaan
* German Low German utgahn
* German ausgehen
* Swedish utgå
Senses: examples: text: So then it will alwayes bee found trew, that God outgoeth all our prayers, and all our wiſhes.
ref: 1577, Iohn Calvin, “The .XXI. Sermon, which is the Sixth vppon the Third Chapter, and the First vppon the Fourth”, in Arthur Golding, transl., The Sermons of M. Iohn Calvin, vpon the Epistle of S. Paule too the Ephesians. […], London: […] Lucas Harison, and George Byshop, →OCLC, folio 150, recto:
text: Shepheards delights he dooth them all forſweare, / Hys pleaſaunt Pipe, whych made vs meriment, / He wylfully hath broke, and doth forbeare / His wonted ſongs, wherein he all outwent.
ref: 1579, Immeritô [pseudonym; Edmund Spenser], “Aprill. Ægloga Quarta.”, in The Shepheardes Calender: […], London: […] Hugh Singleton, […], →OCLC, folio 12, recto:
text: But when they came, where thou thy ſkill didſt ſhowe, / They drewe abacke, as halfe with ſhame confound, / Shepheard to ſee, them in theyr art outgoe.
ref: 1579, Immeritô [pseudonym; Edmund Spenser], “Iune. Ægloga Sexta.”, in The Shepheardes Calender: […], London: […] Hugh Singleton, […], →OCLC, folio 23, verso:
text: [T]hy head ſhall ouerlooke the reſt, / As much as thou in rage out vvent'ſt the reſt.
ref: 1594, Christopher Marlow[e], The Troublesome Raigne and Lamentable Death of Edward the Second, King of England: […], London: […] [Eliot’s Court Press] for Henry Bell, […], published 1622, →OCLC, [Act III]:
text: Valor hath his limites, as other vertues have: vvhich if a man out-go, hee ſhall finde himſelfe in the traine of vice: […]
ref: 1603, Michel de Montaigne, “Men are Punished by Too-much Opinionating Themselves in a Place without Reason”, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book I, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC, page 23:
text: In vvorth and excellence he ſhall out-go them, / Yet being above them, he ſhall be belovv them; […]
ref: 1626 (date written), John Milton, “At a Vacation Exercise in the Colledge, […]”, in Poems, &c. upon Several Occasions, London: […] Tho[mas] Dring […], published 1673, →OCLC, page 67:
text: Ah! vvas it not enough that thou / By thy eternall glorie didſt outgo me?
ref: [1633], George Herbert, “The Reprisall”, in [Nicholas Ferrar], editor, The Temple. Sacred Poems, and Private Ejaculations, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: […] Thomas Buck and Roger Daniel; and are to be sold by Francis Green, […], →OCLC, page 28:
text: I fear me, thou out-go'ſt the Prophet's Order; / And bring's his venerable Name, to ſhelter / A Rudeneſs ill becoming thee to uſe, / Or me to ſuffer.
ref: 1702, N[icholas] Rowe, Tamerlane. A Tragedy. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC, Act III, scene ii, page 38:
text: As the infamy of the conduct of Rhode Island outgoes all precedent, so the influence of her counsels can be of no prejudice.
ref: 1788 July 20, George Washington, “Gᵒ. Washington to Jonathⁿ. Trumbull Esqʳ.”, in Documentary History of the Constitution of the United States of America. 1786–1870. […] Part 1.—Letters and Papers Relating to the Constitution, to July 31, 1788 (Bulletin of the Bureau of Rolls and Library of the Department of State; no. 11, part 1), Washington, D.C.: Department of State, published September 1905, →OCLC, page 808:
text: Danger, long travel, want, or woe, / Soon change the form that best we know— / For deadly fear can time outgo, / And blaunch at once the hair; […]
ref: 1808 February 22, Walter Scott, “Canto First. The Castle.”, in Marmion; a Tale of Flodden Field, Edinburgh: […] J[ames] Ballantyne and Co. for Archibald Constable and Company, […]; London: William Miller, and John Murray, →OCLC, stanza XXIX, page 51:
text: When much intercourse with a friend has supplied us with a standard of excellence, and has increased our respect for the resources of God who thus sends a real person to outgo our ideal; […] —it is a sign to us that his office is closing, and he is commonly withdrawn from our sight in a short time.
ref: 1836, [Ralph Waldo Emerson], “Discipline”, in Nature, Boston, Mass.: James Munroe and Company, →OCLC, page 58:
text: Ah, Pistoia! Pistoia! why dost thou not decree to burn thyself outright, that thou mayest endure no longer, since thou outgoest thy seed in evil-doing?
ref: 1849, Dante Alighieri, “Canto XXV”, in John A[itken] Carlyle, transl., Dante’s Divine Comedy: The Inferno. A Literal Prose Translation, […], London: Chapman and Hall, […], →OCLC, pages 296–297:
text: Ye do outgo / Mad Korah. Boy, this is the Dale / Of Doom, God's last assizes; so, / Curb thee; even if sharp grief assail, / Respect these precincts lest thou know / An ill.
ref: 1876, Herman Melville, “Canto XXX. The Valley of Decision.”, in Clarel: A Poem and Pilgrimage in the Holy Land. […], volume II, New York, N.Y.: G[eorge] P[almer] Putnam’s Sons […], →OCLC, part IV (Bethlehem), page 559:
text: As Professor [John] Fiske outgoes [William] Maginn, Professor [John Churton] Collins outgoes Fiske. He ascribes to [William] Shakespeare, in effect, a greater facility in Latin than is possessed by many professional scholars, because much of Latin is for any man far harder, more elliptic, more obscure than is any modern French for a cultivated modern Englishman.
ref: 1909, John M[ackinnon] Robertson, “The Learning of Shakespeare”, in Montaigne and Shakespeare: And Other Essays on Cognate Questions, 2nd edition, London: Adam and Charles Black, →OCLC, part I, pages 301–302:
synonyms: outdo
glosses: To go further than (someone or something); to exceed, to go beyond, to surpass.
examples: text: So ſince the vvinged God his planet cleare, / began in me to moue, one yeare is ſpent: / the vvhich doth longer vnto me appeare, / then al thoſe fourty vvhich my life outvvent.
ref: 1595, Edmunde Spenser [i.e., Edmund Spenser], “[Amoretti.] Sonnet LX”, in Amoretti and Epithalamion. […], London: […] [Peter Short] for William Ponsonby, →OCLC:
glosses: To experience, go through, or undergo (something).
examples: text: So trauelling, he chaunſt far off to heed, / A Damzell, flying on a palfrey faſt / Before tvvo Knights, […] Yet fled ſhe faſt, and both them farre outvvent, / Carried vvith vvings of feare, like fovvle aghaſt, / VVith locks all looſe, and rayment all to rent; […]
ref: 1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book V, Canto VIII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], part II (books IV–VI), London: […] [Richard Field] for William Ponsonby, →OCLC, stanza 4, page 282:
text: VVhat, ſhall vve talk further vvith him? or out-go him at preſent? and ſo leave him to think of vvhat he hath heard already; and then ſtop again for him aftervvards, and ſee if by degrees vve can do any good of him?
ref: 1678, John Bunyan, The Pilgrim’s Progress from This World, to That which is to Come: […], London: […] Nath[aniel] Ponder […], →OCLC, page 164:
text: Then ſaid By-ends, […] I muſt do as I did before you overtook me, even go by my ſelf, untill ſome overtake me that vvill be glad of my Company. Then Chriſtian and Hopeful outvvent him, and vvent till they came at a delicate Plain, called Eaſe, vvhere they vvent vvith much content; but that plain vvas but narrovv, ſo they vvere quickly got over it.
ref: 1678, John Bunyan, The Pilgrim’s Progress from This World, to That which is to Come: […], London: […] Nath[aniel] Ponder […], →OCLC, page 206:
text: For as much as Time, is alvvaies Scattered and Stretched out in Length, and Diſtance, one moment follovving after another; but Eternity remaineth in the ſame, vvithout any Flux, and yet nevertheleſs outgoeth Time, and tranſcendeth the Flux thereof, though ſeeming to be ſtretched and ſpun out more into Length.
ref: 1678, R[alph] Cudworth, chapter V, in The True Intellectual System of the Universe: The First Part; wherein All the Reason and Philosophy of Atheism is Confuted; and Its Impossibility Demonstrated, London: […] Richard Royston, […], →OCLC, page 781:
text: The tvvo Travellers ſet out together, one on horeſback, the other on foot: Novv as it generally happens that he on horſeback out-goes him on foot, the Cuſtom is, that vvhen he arrives at the Diſtance agreed on, he is to diſmount, tie the Horſe to ſome Gate, Tree, Poſt, or other thing, and then proceed on foot; vvhen the other comes up to the Horſe, he unties him, mounts and gallops on, […]
ref: 1742, Henry Fielding, “A Surprizing Instance of Mr. Adams’s Short Memory, with the Unfortunate Consequences which It Brought on Joseph”, in The History of the Adventures of Joseph Andrews, and of His Friend Mr. Abraham Adams. […], volume I, London: […] A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC, book II, page 138:
text: Ever he gazed earnestly on the main battle of the Romans, and what they were doing, and presently it became clear to him that they would outgo him and come to the ford, and then he wotted well that they would set on him just when their light-armed were on his flank and his rearward, and then it would go hard but they would break their array and all would be lost: […]
ref: 1889, William Morris, “Otter and His Folk Come into Mid-mark”, in A Tale of the House of the Wolfings and All the Kindreds of the Mark […], London: Reeves and Turner […], →OCLC, page 126:
synonyms: outdistance
outrun
pass
glosses: To travel faster than (someone or something); to outstrip, to overtake.
examples: text: I ſawe a ſhole of ſhepheardes outgoe, / With ſinging, and ſhouting, and iolly chere: […]
ref: 1579, Immeritô [pseudonym; Edmund Spenser], “Maye. Ægloga Quinta.”, in The Shepheardes Calender: […], London: […] Hugh Singleton, […], →OCLC, folio 16, verso:
text: And in the middle sea they chanced to meet; / Up goes the trump; with shots and shouts they greet, / And hasten them to set on with the sun; / With grisly sound outgoeth the great gun, […]
ref: 1845, James Russell Lowell, “First Conversation. Chaucer.”, in Conversations on Some of the Old Poets, Cambridge, Mass.: John Owen, →OCLC, page 99:
text: There is a God, the One only Creator, / The All-Animator; / From Him the light of life ever outgoeth,— / Life's river floweth: […]
ref: 1890, John Bragg, “Life”, in Sonnets and Short Poems (Second Series), Leeds, Yorkshire: […] Alfred W. Inman, →OCLC, page 13:
qualifier: archaic except poetic and British
glosses: To go out, to set forth, to set out.
examples: text: But John / (Our Friend) Molleſſon, / Thought us to have out-gone / VVith a quaint Invention.
ref: 1668, John Denham, “On My Lord Croft’s and My Journey into Poland, from whence We Brought 10000 l. for His Majesty by the Decimation of His Scottish Subjects there”, in Poems and Translations, with The Sophy, London: […] [John Macock] for H[enry] Herringman […], →OCLC, stanza 10, page 68:
glosses: To go too far; to overextend or overreach.
Derived terms: word: outgoer
word: outgoing
word: outgone
Related terms: outgang