Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun The last extremity.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun The utmost or last extremity.
- noun a fight to the end, or to the death.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun obsolete The furthest degree or extremity, going beyond bounds or propriety.
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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But if the shield was touched with the sharp end of the lance, the combat was understood to be at outrance, that is, the knights were to fight with sharp weapons, as in actual battle.
Ivanhoe. A Romance 1819
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But if the shield was touched with the sharp end of the lance, the combat was understood to be at "outrance", that is, the knights were to fight with sharp weapons, as in actual battle.
Ivanhoe Walter Scott 1801
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It was an era of guerre a outrance, or war without limit, with Nazi Germany and the Axis Powers, and then the Soviet Union and its satellites, threatening America's and the West's liberal democratic values and our, and our allies', very existence.
The Political Consequences Of The Peace Ralph Benko 2010
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Charteris of Kinfauns will do battle with him to the outrance, whilst horse and man may stand, or spear and blade hold together.
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Turnbull perceived her intention, and caught hold of her with no very gentle grasp, saying — “Nay, lady, it is to be understood that you play your own part in the drama, which, unless you continue on the stage, will conclude unsatisfactorily to us all, in a combat at outrance between your lover and me, when it will appear which of us is most worthy of your favour.”
Castle Dangerous 2008
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Know ye that valiancy lieth in endurance of outrance and that no case is so strait but that the
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Or, “though the Phocians maintained a war ‘a outrance’ with him.”
Hellenica 2007
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But if the shield was touched with the sharp end of the lance, the combat was understood to be at “outrance”, that is, the knights were to fight with sharp weapons, as in actual battle.
Ivanhoe 2004
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But if the shield was touched with the sharp end of the lance, the combat was understood to be at _outrance_, [46-3] that is, the knights were to fight with sharp weapons, as in actual battle.
Journeys Through Bookland, Vol. 6 Charles Herbert Sylvester
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I must, in that case, be prepared to wage a war a outrance, in which there would be no quarter allowed, on _one_ side at least.
myth commented on the word outrance
Hmmm ... They couldn't use a better definition for this? It means to the death.
(n)The utmost or last extremity.
February 16, 2009
bilby commented on the word outrance
Ausgang!
In the event of an alarm sounding, patrons are kindly requested to leave calmly by the nearest outrance.
February 16, 2009