different between down vs out

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /da?n/
• Rhymes: -a?n

Etymology 1

From Middle English doun, from Old English d?ne, aphetic form of ad?ne, from ofd?ne (“off the hill”). For the development from directional phrases to prepositions, cf. Middle Low German d?le (“(in/to the) valley”), i.e. "down(wards)".

Adverb

down (not generally comparable, comparative farther down, superlative farthest down)

1. (comparable) From a higher position to a lower one; downwards.
   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:down.
2. As a down payment

   You can have it, no money down.

3. On paper (or in a durable record)

   You need to write down what happened while it's still fresh in your mind.

4. South (as south is at the bottom of typical maps).

5. Away from the city (regardless of direction).
   • 1722, Daniel Defoe, A Journal of the Plague Year, London: E. Nutt et al., p. 12,^[1]

     But then my Servant who I had intended to take down with me [i.e. from London to Bedfordshire], deceiv’d me;

6. At or towards any place that is visualised as 'down' by virtue of local features or local convention, or arbitrarily, irrespective of direction or elevation change.

7. (sports) Towards the opponent's side (in ball-sports).
8. Into a state of non-operation.

9. To a subordinate or less prestigious position or rank.

10. (rail transport) In the direction leading away from the principal terminus, away from milepost zero.
11. (sentence substitute, imperative) Get down.

12. (Britain, academia, dated) Away from Oxford or Cambridge.

13. From a remoter or higher antiquity.

    These traditions have been handed down over generations.
14. So as to lessen quantity, level or intensity.

    You need to tone down the rhetoric.

    Please turn the music down!

15. So as to reduce size, weight or volume.

    Trim the stick down to a length of about twelve inches.

    Thanks to my strict diet, I've slimmed down to eleven stone.

    Boil the mixture down to a syrupy consistency.
16. From less to greater detail.

    This spreadsheet lets you drill down to daily or even hourly sales figures.
17. So as to secure or compress something to the floor, ground, or other (usually horizontal) surface.

    We need to nail down this carpet so people don't keep tripping over it.

18. Used with verbs to indicate that the action of the verb was carried to some state of completion, permanence, or success rather than being of indefinite duration.

Usage notes

• Down can be used with verbs in ways that change the meaning of the verb in ways not entirely predictable from the meanings of the down and the verb, though related to them. See Category:English phrasal verbs with particle (down).

Antonyms

• (From a higher position to a lower one): up
• (At a lower place): up
• (Away from the city): up
• (Into a state of non-operation): up
• (Rail transport: direction leading away from the principal terminus): up
• (in crosswords): across

Translations

Preposition

down

1. From the higher end to the lower of.
2. From north to south of.

   We sailed down the eastern seaboard.

3. From one end to another of (in any direction); along.

   • It was April 22, 1831, and a young man was walking down Whitehall in the direction of Parliament Street. He wore shepherd's plaid trousers and the swallow-tail coat of the day, with a figured muslin cravat wound about his wide-spread collar.

4. (colloquial) At (a given place that is seen as removed from one's present location or other point of reference).

   I'll see you later down the pub.

Antonyms

• (From the higher end to the lower): up

Derived terms

• (from the higher end to the lower): sell down the river

Translations

Adjective

down (comparative more down, superlative most down)

1. Facing downwards.

   Turn the cloth over so that the patterned side is down.

   • 1993,Calvert, Finite Mathematics: Overrun Edition, page 251:

     You win a dollar if the down side of the card is different than the up side; otherwise, you lose a dollar.

   • 2004, Robert M. Gray, Lee D. Davisson, An Introduction to Statistical Signal Processing, page 170:

     Define the event F as the event that the down face of the die is 1 or 4.

   • 2016, Keith E. Stanovich, Richard F. West, Maggie E. Toplak, The Rationality Quotient: Toward a Test of Rational Thinking, page 332:

     Each time the 10 cards are reshuffled, your task is to predict the letter on the down side of the top card.

2. At a lower level than before.

   The stock market is down.

   Prices are down.

3. (informal) Sad, unhappy, depressed, feeling low.

   Mary seems very down since she split up with her boyfriend.
4. (normally in the combination 'down with') Sick or ill.

   He is down with the flu.

5. Having a lower score than an opponent.

   They are down by 3–0 with just 5 minutes to play.

   He was down by a bishop and a pawn after 15 moves.

   At 5–1 down, she produced a great comeback to win the set on a tiebreak.

6. (baseball, colloquial, following the noun modified) Out.

   Two down and one to go in the bottom of the ninth.

7. (colloquial, with "on") Negative about, hostile to.

   Ever since Nixon, I've been down on Republicans.

8. (Canada, US, slang) Comfortable with, accepting of.

   He's chill enough; he'd probably be totally down with it.

   Are you down to hang out at the mall, Jamal?

   As long as you're down with helping me pick a phone, Tyrone.
9. (not comparable) Inoperable; out of order; out of service.

   The system is down.

10. Finished (of a task); defeated or dealt with (of an opponent or obstacle); elapsed (of time). Often coupled with to go (remaining).

    Two down and three to go. (Two tasks completed and three more still to be done.)

    Ten minutes down and nothing's happened yet.

11. (not comparable, military, law enforcement, slang, of a person) Wounded and unable to move normally, or killed.

    We have an officer down outside the suspect's house.

    There are three soldiers down and one walking wounded.

12. (not comparable, military, aviation, slang, of an aircraft) Mechanically failed, collided, shot down, or otherwise suddenly unable to fly.

    We have a chopper down near the river.

13. Thoroughly practiced, learned or memorised; mastered. (Compare down pat.)

    It's two weeks until opening night and our lines are still not down yet.

    • 2013, P.J. Hoover, Solstice, ?ISBN, page 355:

      I stay with Chloe the longest. When she's not hanging out at the beach parties, she lives in a Japanese garden complete with an arched bridge spanning a pond filled with koi of varying sizes and shapes. Reeds shoot out of the water, rustling when the fish swim through them, and river-washed stones are sprinkled in a bed of sand. Chloe has this whole new Japanese thing down.

14. (obsolete) Downright; absolute; positive.
15. (African-American Vernacular, slang) Loyal.

    What you mean, 'No'? Man, I thought you was down.

Antonyms

• (Depressed): up
• (On a lower level): up
• (Having a lower score): up
• (Inoperable): up

Derived terms

• down but not out

Translations

Verb

down (third-person singular simple present downs, present participle downing, simple past and past participle downed)

1. (transitive) To knock (someone or something) down; to cause to come down, to fell. [from 16th c.]

   The storm downed several old trees along the highway.

   A single rifle shot downed the mighty beast.

   1. (transitive) Specifically, to cause (something in the air) to fall to the ground; to bring down (with a missile etc.). [from 19th c.]

      The helicopter was downed by a surface-to-air missile.

2. (transitive) To lower; to put (something) down. [from 16th c.]

   The bell rang for lunch, and the workers downed their tools.

3. (transitive, figuratively) To defeat; to overpower. [from 17th. c.]
4. (transitive, colloquial) To disparage, to put down. [from 18th c.]
   • 1779, Frances Burney, Journals & Letters, Penguin 2001, p. 141:

     ‘I remember how you downed Beauclerk and Hamilton, the Wits, once at our House, – when they talked of Ghosts.’

5. (intransitive, rare or obsolete) To go or come down; to descend. [from 17th. c.]
6. (transitive, colloquial) To drink or swallow, especially without stopping before the vessel containing the liquid is empty. [from 19th c.]

   He downed an ale and ordered another.

7. (transitive, American football, Canadian football) To render (the ball) dead, typically by touching the ground while in possession. [from 19th c.]

   He downed it at the seven-yard line.

8. (transitive, golf, pocket billiards) To sink (a ball) into a hole or pocket. [from 20th c.]

   He downed two balls on the break.

Synonyms

• (drink): See also Thesaurus:drink

Derived terms

• down tools

Translations

Noun

down (plural downs)

1. A negative aspect; a downer.

   I love almost everything about my job. The only down is that I can't take Saturdays off.

2. (dated) A grudge (on someone).
   • 1974, GB Edwards, The Book of Ebenezer Le Page, New York 2007, page 10:

     She had a down on me. I don't know what for, I'm sure; because I never said a word.

3. An act of swallowing an entire drink at once.
4. (American football) A single play, from the time the ball is snapped (the start) to the time the whistle is blown (the end) when the ball is down, or is downed.

   I bet after the third down, the kicker will replace the quarterback on the field.

5. (crosswords) A clue whose solution runs vertically in the grid.

   I haven't solved 12 or 13 across, but I've got most of the downs.

6. A downstairs room of a two-story house.

   She lives in a two-up two-down.

7. Down payment.

Translations

Derived terms

References

• Andrea Tyler and Vyvyan Evans, "Spatial particles of orientation", in The Semantics of English Prepositions: Spatial Scenes, Embodied Meaning and Cognition, Cambridge University Press, 2003, 0-521-81430 8

Etymology 2

From Middle English doune, from Old English d?n, from Proto-Germanic *d?naz, *d?n? (“sandhill, dune”), probably borrowed from Proto-Celtic *d?nom (“hill; hillfort”) (compare Welsh din (“hill”), Irish dún (“hill, fort”)), from Proto-Indo-European *d?ewh?- (“to finish, come full circle”). Cognate with West Frisian dún (“dune, sandhill”), Dutch duin (“dune, sandhill”), German Düne (“dune”). More at town; akin to dune.

Noun

down (countable and uncountable, plural downs)

1. (especially southern England) A hill, especially a chalk hill; rolling grassland

   We went for a walk over the downs.

   The North Downs are a ridge of chalk hills in south east England.

   • 1610, William Shakespeare, The Tempest, act 4 scene 1

     And with each end of thy blue bow dost crown / My bosky acres and my unshrubb'd down
2. (usually in the plural) A field, especially one used for horse racing.
3. (Britain, chiefly in the plural) A tract of poor, sandy, undulating or hilly land near the sea, covered with fine turf which serves chiefly for the grazing of sheep.

Derived terms

Translations

Etymology 3

Middle English, borrowed into West Germanic from Old Norse dúnn, from Proto-Germanic *d?na- (“down”), which is related to *dauniz (“(pleasant) smell”), from Proto-Indo-European *d?owh?-nis, from the root *d?ewh?-.

Cognate with Saterland Frisian Duune (“fluff, down”), German Daune (“down”) and Danish dun (“down”).

Noun

down (countable and uncountable, plural downs)

2. Soft, fluffy immature feathers which grow on young birds. Used as insulating material in duvets, sleeping bags and jackets.
3. (botany) The pubescence of plants; the hairy crown or envelope of the seeds of certain plants, such as the thistle.
4. The soft hair of the face when beginning to appear.
5. That which is made of down, as a bed or pillow; that which affords ease and repose, like a bed of down.

Translations

Verb

down (third-person singular simple present downs, present participle downing, simple past and past participle downed)

1. (transitive) To cover, ornament, line, or stuff with down.

Further reading

• Kroonen, Guus (2013) , “dauna-”, in Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 11), Leiden, Boston: Brill, ?ISBN, page 90

Anagrams

• nowd

Dutch

Etymology

Borrowed from English down.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /d?u?n/
• Hyphenation: down

Adjective

down (used only predicatively, comparative meer down, superlative meest down)

1. down, depressed

Synonyms

• depressief, depri

Anagrams

• wond

German

Etymology

From English down.

Pronunciation

Adjective

down (not comparable)

1. (colloquial) down, depressed
2. (Internet, of websites and servers) down, not online
3. (video games) down, defeated, without health left

Further reading

• “down” in Duden online

Welsh

Alternative forms

• dawn (colloquial first-person plural future)
• delwn, deswn, dethwn (colloquial first-person singular conditional)
• deuwn (literary; all forms)

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /dou?n/

Verb

down

1. first-person plural present/future of dod
2. first-person singular imperfect/conditional of dod
3. (literary) first-person plural imperative of dod

Mutation

English

Alternative forms

• oute (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English out, oute, from a combination of Old English ?t (“out”, preposition & adverb), from Proto-Germanic *?t (“out”); and Old English ?te (“outside; without”, adverb), from Proto-Germanic *?tai (“out; outside”); both from Proto-Indo-European *úd (“upwards, away”).

Cognate with Scots oot, out (“out”), Saterland Frisian uut, uute (“out”), West Frisian út (“out”), Dutch uit (“out”), German Low German ut (“out”), German aus (“out”), Norwegian/Swedish ut, ute (“out; outside”), Danish ud, ude (“out; outside”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) enPR: out, IPA^(key): /a?t/
• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /æ?t/, /æ?t/
• (Canada) IPA^(key): /??t/
• (Scotland) IPA^(key): /??t/
• Rhymes: -a?t

Adverb

out (not comparable)

1. Away from the inside, centre or other point of reference.

   The magician tapped the hat, and a rabbit jumped out.

   Once they had landed, the commandos quickly spread out along the beach.

   For six hours the tide flows out, then for six hours it flows in.

2. Away from home or one's usual place.

   Let's eat out tonight

3. Outside; not indoors.

   Last night we slept out under the stars.

4. Away from; at a distance.

   Keep out!

5. Into a state of non-operation or non-existence.

   Turn the lights out.

   Put the fire out.

   I painted out that nasty mark on the wall.

6. To the end; completely.

   I haven't finished. Hear me out.

   • Deceitful men shall not live out half their days.

7. Used to intensify or emphasize.

   The place was all decked out for the holidays.

8. (of the sun, moon, stars, etc.) So as to be visible in the sky, and not covered by clouds, fog, etc.

   The sun came out after the rain, and we saw a rainbow.

9. (cricket, baseball) Of a player, so as to be disqualified from playing further by some action of a member of the opposing team (such as being stumped in cricket).

   Wilson was bowled out for five runs.

See also

There are numerous individual phrasal verbs, such as come out, go out, pull out, put out, take out, and so on.

Synonyms

• (not at home): away

Antonyms

• (not at home): in

Derived terms

• move out
• thought-out
• out-of-bounds

Related terms

Translations

Preposition

out

1. From from the inside to the outside of; out of. [from 14th c.]
   • c. 1608, William Shakespeare, Coriolanus, V.2:

     Can you, when you have pushed out your gates the very defender of them, and in a violent popular ignorance given your enemy your shield, think to front his revenges with the easy groans of old women, the virginal palms of your daughters, or with the palsied intercession of such a decayed dotant as you seem to be?

   • 1830, Alfred, Lord Tennyson, "Adeline":

     Thy roselips and full blue eyes / Take the heart from out my breast.

   • 2012, Thomas Gifford, Woman in the Window:

     After she'd made her single cup of coffee she sat looking out the window into the slushy, halficy backyard and dialed Tony's number on Staten Island.

Usage notes

• The use of out as a preposition, as in look out the window, is standard in American, Australian, and New Zealand English, and is common in speech and informal contexts in Britain, but is not standard British English.

Synonyms

• (away from the inside): through

Antonyms

• (away from the inside): in

Translations

Noun

out (plural outs)

1. A means of exit, escape, reprieve, etc.

   They wrote the law to give those organizations an out.

3. (baseball) A state in which a member of the batting team is removed from play due to the application of various rules of the game such as striking out, hitting a fly ball which is caught by the fielding team before bouncing, etc.
4. (cricket) A dismissal; a state in which a member of the batting team finishes his turn at bat, due to the application of various rules of the game, such as the bowler knocking over the batsman's wicket with the ball.
5. (poker) A card which can make a hand a winner.
   • 2005, Alison M. Pendergast, Play Winning Poker in No Time (page 57)

     As a beginner, when you are in a hand, you should practice counting your outs, or those live cards left in the deck that can improve your hand.

   • 2006, David Apostolico, Lessons from the Professional Poker Tour (page 21)

     If he did have a bigger ace, I still had at least six outs — the case ace, two nines, and three tens. I could also have more outs if he held anything less than A-K.

6. (dated) A trip out; an outing.
   • 1852-53, Charles Dickens, Bleak House

     Us London lawyers don't often get an out; and when we do, we like to make the most of it, you know.

7. (chiefly in the plural) One who, or that which, is out; especially, one who is out of office.

   Antonym: in

   • 1827, Benjamin Chew, A Sketch of the Politics, Relations, and Statistics, of the Western World (page 192)

     This memoir has nothing to do with the question between the ins and the outs; it is intended neither to support nor to assail the administration; it is general in its views upon a general and national subject; […]

8. A place or space outside of something; a nook or corner; an angle projecting outward; an open space.
9. (printing, dated) A word or words omitted by the compositor in setting up copy; an omission.

Descendants

• ? Japanese: ??? (auto)
• ? Korean: ?? (aut)

Translations

Verb

out (third-person singular simple present outs, present participle outing, simple past and past participle outed)

1. (transitive) To eject; to expel.
   • 1689, John Selden, Table Talk

     a king outed of his country

   • 1674, Peter Heylin, Cosmographie in four bookes

     The French have been outed from their holds.
2. (intransitive) To come or go out; to get out or away; to become public, revealed, or apparent.
3. (transitive) To reveal (a person or organization) as having a certain secret, such as a being a secret agent or undercover detective.
   • 2009 March 16, Maurna Desmond, "AIG Outs Counterparties" (online news article), Forbes.com.
4. (transitive) To reveal (a secret).

   A Brazilian company outed the new mobile phone design.

5. (transitive, LGBT) To reveal (a person) as LGBT+ (gay, trans, etc).
   • 2015, Juliet Jacques, Trans: A Memoir, Verso Books (?ISBN):

     Trans Media Watch had recently spoken at the Leveson Inquiry about how the Sun and the Daily Mail routinely outed trans people, publishing old names and photos, for no reason other than because they could.

   • 2016, Molly Booth, Saving Hamlet, Little, Brown Books for Young Readers (?ISBN):

     The Parkses were strict and narrowminded, and not knowing what to do with their recently outed bisexual teenage daughter, their obvious solution was to cut her off from her friends and keep her from leaving the house.

   • 2020, Jos Twist, Meg-John Barker, Kat Gupta, Benjamin Vincent, Non-Binary Lives: An Anthology of Intersecting Identities, Jessica Kingsley Publishers (?ISBN), page 116:

     As of 2018, I chair the workforce committee and lead on diversity and inclusion, including heading up a policy review on gender identity and trans inclusion, although that led me to be publicly outed as non-binary in the Sunday Times.

6. To kill; to snuff out.

Synonyms

• (reveal a secret): See also Thesaurus:divulge

Translations

Adjective

out (not comparable)

1. Not at home; not at one's office or place of employment.

   I'm sorry, Mr Smith is out at the moment.

2. Not inside or within something.

   I worked away cleaning the U-bend until all the gunge was out.

3. Freed from confinement or secrecy.

4. Not fitted or inserted into something.

   The TV won't work with the plug out!

5. (sports) Of the ball or other playing implement, falling or passing outside the bounds of the playing area.

   I thought the ball hit the line, but the umpire said it was out.

6. Released, available for purchase, download or other use.
7. (in various games; used especially of a batsman or batter in cricket or baseball) Dismissed from play under the rules of the game.

   He bowls, Johnson pokes at it ... and ... Johnson is out! Caught behind by Ponsonby!

8. (LGBT) Openly acknowledging that one is LGBT+ (gay, trans, etc).
   • 2011, Allan Bérubé, My Desire for History: Essays in Gay, Community, and Labor History:

     I had not come out yet and he was out but wasn't; quite ungay, I would say, and yet gay.

   • 2018, Matthew Waites, Supporting Young Transgender Men: A Guide for Professionals, Jessica Kingsley Publishers (?ISBN), page 40:

     However, for a transgender man, while living stealth can be a feasible option for some, key people will need to know […] Not everyone has to be out, loud and proud or march down the streets holding trans flags […]

9. (by extension, uncommon) Open, public; public about or openly acknowledging some (usually specified) identity.
   • 2014, Arlene Stein, Reluctant Witnesses: Survivors, Their Children, and the Rise of Holocaust Consciousness, Oxford University Press (?ISBN):

     She was “out” as a survivor for the first time in her life. “I had friends who had known me many, many years who are totally astounded, shocked,” she said. “They could not believe that I was a Holocaust survivor. [...]”

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:out.
10. (of flowers) In bloom.

    The garden looks beautiful now that the roses are out.

11. (of the sun, moon or stars) Visible in the sky; not obscured by clouds.

    The sun is out, and it's a lovely day.

12. (of lamps, fires etc.) Not shining or burning.

    I called round to the house but all the lights were out and no one was home.

13. (of ideas, plans, etc.) Discarded; no longer a possibility.

    Right, so that idea's out. Let's move on to the next one.

14. (of certain services, devices, or facilities) Not available; out of service.

    Power is out in the entire city.

    My wi-fi is out.

15. (of a user of a service) Not having availability of a service, as power or communications.

    Most of the city got service back yesterday, but my neighborhood is still out.

16. (of an organization, etc.) Temporarily not in operation, or not being attended as usual.

    when school gets out for today, when college is out for the summer

17. Of the tide, at or near its lowest level.

    You can walk to the island when the tide's out.

18. No longer popular or in fashion.

    Black is out this season. The new black is white.

19. Without; no longer in possession of; not having more

    Do you have any bread? Sorry, we're out.

20. (of calculations or measurements) Containing errors or discrepancies; in error by a stated amount.

    Nothing adds up in this report. All these figures are out.

    The measurement was out by three millimetres.

21. (obsolete) Of a young lady: having entered society and available to be courted.

Usage notes

• In cricket, the specific cause or rule under which a batsman is out appears after the word “out”, e.g., “out hit the ball twice”.
• In baseball, the cause is expressed as a verb with adverbial “out”, e.g., “he grounded out”.

Synonyms

• (no longer popular): démodé, passé, unchic; see also Thesaurus:unfashionable

Antonyms

• (disqualified from playing): in, safe
• (openly acknowledging that one is LGBT+): closeted

Hyponyms

• (openly acknowledging that one is LGBT+): openly gay, etc.

Translations

Interjection

out

1. (procedure word, especially military) A radio procedure word meaning that the station is finished with its transmission and does not expect a response.

   Destruction. Two T-72s destroyed. Three foot mobiles down. Out.
2. Get out; begone; away!
   • 1606, William Shakespeare, Macbeth

     Out, damned spot! Out, I say!

Coordinate terms

• over

Derived terms

• over and out

Derived terms

See also Category:English phrasal verbs with particle (out)

Related terms

• outen

References

• Andrea Tyler and Vyvyan Evans, "Bounded landmarks", in The Semantics of English Prepositions: Spatial Scenes, Embodied Meaning and Cognition, Cambridge University Press, 2003, 0-521-81430 8
• out at OneLook Dictionary Search

Breton

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ut/

Verb

out

1. second-person singular present indicative of bezañ

Bukiyip

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [?wut?]

Noun

out

1. rat

References

• 2007. The UCLA Phonetics Lab Archive. Los Angeles, CA: UCLA Department of Linguistics.

Chinese

Alternative forms

• OUT

Etymology

Borrowed from English out.

Verb

out

1. (slang) to be outdated

German

Etymology

Borrowed from English out. Doublet of aus.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /a??t/, [?a??t?]
• Rhymes: -a??t

Adjective

out (not comparable)

1. (colloquial) out of fashion

Declension

Synonyms

• altmodisch, unmodern

Antonyms

• angesagt
• in (colloquial)

Further reading

• “out” in Duden online
• “out” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache
• “out” in PONS (pons.com)
  “out” in PONS (pons.com)

Haitian Creole

Etymology

From French août (“August”)

Noun

out

1. August

Mauritian Creole

Etymology

From French août

Noun

out

1. August

Middle Dutch

Etymology

From Old Dutch ald, from Proto-West Germanic *ald, from Proto-Germanic *aldaz.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /out/

Adjective

out (comparative ouder, superlative outst)

1. old

   Antonym: jonc

Inflection

Derived terms

• ouden

Descendants

• Dutch: oud
  • Afrikaans: oud
• Limburgish: aad

Further reading

• “out”, in Vroegmiddelnederlands Woordenboek, 2000
• Verwijs, E.; Verdam, J. (1885–1929) , “out (I)”, in Middelnederlandsch Woordenboek, The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, ?ISBN, page I

Spanish

Noun

out m (plural outs)

1. (baseball) out