English

Preposition

out of

1. From the inside to the outside of; having emerged from.

   The audience came out of the theater.

   The cat is out of the bag

2. Not part of.

   This is out of my area of expertise.

3. With the motivation of.

   I give money to charity out of pity.

   She asked the question out of mere curiosity.

4. Without; no longer in possession of; not having more; divested of.

   Sorry, we're out of bread.

   • 1874, Thomas Hardy, Far From the Madding Crowd, 2005 Barnes & Noble Classics publication of 1912 Wessex edition, p276:

     Once out of the farm the approach of poverty would be sure.

5. Not in a customary or desired state.

   They will soon be out of business.

   This train will be going out of service at the next station.

6. Expressing a fraction or a ratio.

   Only three out of a thousand are born with this rare disease

   Out of the entire class, only Cynthia completed the work.

7. (nautical) Stating the port in which a boat has been registered.

   There's the Titanic out of Liverpool.

Synonyms

• exterior to (2)
• external to (2, 3)
• outside of (2, 3)
• without (Scotland) (3)
• (expressing a fraction or a ratio): from, of, for

Derived terms

• (having come out of): out of nowhere
• (Not part of): out of reach

Translations

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