Definitions

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

  • adjective Located on the outside; external.
  • adjective Farther than another from the center or middle.
  • adjective Relating to the body or its appearance rather than the mind or spirit.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To utter.
  • Of or pertaining to the outside; that is without or on the outside; external: opposed to inner: as, the outer wall.
  • Further removed; being outside with reference to some place or point regarded as inner or internal.
  • noun In rifle-practice: The part of a target beyond the circles surrounding the bull's-eye, and thus nearer the outside.
  • noun A shot which strikes that part.
  • noun In electricity, one of the outside wires of a three-wire circuit.
  • noun In law, dispossession; an ouster.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Being on the outside; external; farthest or farther from the interior, from a given station, or from any space or position regarded as a center or starting place; -- opposed to inner
  • adjective in England, the body of junior (or utter) barristers; -- so called because in court they occupy a place beyond the space reserved for Queen's counsel.
  • noun The part of a target which is beyond the circles surrounding the bull's-eye.
  • noun A shot which strikes the outer of a target.
  • noun rare One who puts out, ousts, or expels; also, an ouster; dispossession.

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

  • adjective Outside; external.
  • adjective Farther from the centre of the inside.
  • noun An outer part.
  • noun the smallest single unit normally sold to retailers, usually equal to one retail display box.
  • noun Someone who admits to something publicly.
  • noun Someone who outs another.
  • noun One who puts out, ousts, or expels.
  • noun An ouster; dispossession.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective located outside
  • adjective being on or toward the outside of the body
  • adjective being on the outside or further from a center

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Comparative of out by analogy with inner.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

out (verb) + -er ("agent suffix")

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word outer.

Examples

  • If a subjective intuition is directly caused by an “outer” object, Bolzano calls it an ˜outer intuition™.

    Slices of Matisse gerard varni 2009

  • In the charged black hole, what we call the outer event horizon (r+ on the diagram) is the point of no return.

    Where Does the Entropy Go? Sean 2009

  • The guitar on the songs is what he calls his outer life; his inner life is the philosophy informing them.

    Alex Remington: Richard Lloyd, Television Guitarist, Playing Washington DC Velvet Lounge Tonight 2008

  • Most of these riots took place in what we call the outer city ghettos, which are the suburbs that have been built for these people who came in after the Second World War when their parents and grandparents were invited in by France to help with the economy.

    CNN Transcript Nov 29, 2005 2005

  • He was a prisoner in fairyland, and what he called his outer and his inner world were, after all, but different ways of looking at one and the same thing.

    A Prisoner in Fairyland Algernon Blackwood 1910

  • "But I have never seen what you call the outer world," she answered, with a touch of melancholy in her voice.

    The Ghost of Guir House Charles Willing Beale 1888

  • "But I have never seen what you call the outer world," she answered, with a touch of melancholy in her voice.

    The Ghost of Guir House Charles Willing Beale 1888

  • "But I have never seen what you call the outer world," she answered, with a touch of melancholy in her voice.

    The Ghost of Guir House Charles Willing Beale 1888

  • In the charged black hole, what we call the outer event horizon (r+ on the diagram) is the point of no return.

    Cosmic Variance 2009

  • Shannon Reeves '(age 11) submission for this month's SciFi Fairy Tales art contest puts Rapunzel in outer space.

    SciFi Fairy Tales: Rapunzel lets her hair down. Way down. 2009

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.