Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The faculty or act of clearly perceiving and understanding external things.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Sight for that which is without; outlook; power of observation.
  • In Scots law, in the phrase outsight plenishing, a designation given to outdoor movables, as horses, cows, and oxen, or plows, carts, and other implements of husbandry.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Sight for that which is on the outside; the ability or capacity to perceive or anticipate external things; view; outlook; perspective; power of observation.
  • noun Expectation; prospect.
  • noun Scotland Movable goods kept out of doors, such as animals, ploughs, carts, and other implements of husbandry.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From out- +‎ sight. Cognate with Dutch uitzicht ("view, prospect, outlook"), German Aussicht ("view, prospect, chance, outlook, perspective"), Swedish utsikt ("view, outlook, prospect").

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Examples

  • I discovered my life calling tonight and you prevented me from taking outsight from a person I was really asking for insight from but was going to say outsight because of their out sider status ..

    Outsight 2007

  • Such cases make it difficult to know when an outsight is necessary, and when it is gauche.

    Outsight 2007

  • In the more normative setting, where the discussers are relying on “native intelligence” (often an oxymoron) or perhaps are all just well read on events, the “outsight” occurrence perhaps might even be necessary.

    Outsight 2007

  • What is the type of comment that qualifies as an outsight?

    Outsight 2007

  • So, formally … outsight, n: A statement believed by the person who utters it to be an important or profound insight, but which is in fact regarded by its audience as so obvious or elementary that it reveals the speaker as hopelessly ignorant or slow-witted, at least relative to the relevant group.

    Outsight 2007

  • I have been searching to dissent from the Rove two minutes hate recently, but unfortunately I feel my comments could be justly labeled as outsight.

    Outsight 2007

  • Think of the lyrics of old pop songs: "Uptight and outsight" wasn't exactly innocent.

    A Conversation With William Bennett 2008

  • Moses is represented as the external and superficial religionist; the man of outsight; Al – Khizr as the spiritual and illuminated man of insight.

    The Book of The Thousand Nights And A Night 2006

  • He had insight as well as outsight, and the two taught him that personal and external reformation were mean matters compared with elevating the inner man.

    The Book of The Thousand Nights And A Night 2006

  • This is the same kind of conflicting interests the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has with administering our renewable ethanol fuels program while at the same time it is suppose to provide regulatory outsight to the same programs that are supposed to be run by the United States Department of Energy.

    Energy advice for President-elect Barack Obama 2008

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