English

Adjective

out of the picture ‎(comparative more out of the picture, superlative most out of the picture)

1. (idiomatic) Not included in the matter being planned or under consideration; not a factor or participant in the present situation.
   • 1986, Margaret Truman, Murder at the FBI, ISBN 9780449206188, p. 191:

     "Well, since Ross is pretty much out of the picture, you're sitting in the driver's seat."

   • 2007 July 19, Justin Fox, "The End of Easy Money," Time:

     By mid-2004, confident that deflation was out of the picture, the Fed began raising rates again.

   • 2013 June 1, “End of the peer show”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8838, page 71:

     Finance is seldom romantic. But the idea of peer-to-peer lending comes close. This is an industry that brings together individual savers and lenders on online platforms. […] Banks and credit-card firms are kept out of the picture. Talk to enough people in the field and someone is bound to mention the “democratisation of finance”.

2. (idiomatic, euphemistic) Dead.
3. (idiomatic, dated) Not suiting or attuned to the situation; incongruous.
   • 1906, Richard Harding Davis, "Baron James Harden Hickey" in Real Soldiers of Fortune:

     Harden-Hickey, in our day, was as incongruous a figure as was the American at the Court of King Arthur; he was as unhappily out of the picture as would be Cyrano de Bergerac on the floor of the Board of Trade.

   • 1919, John Buchan, Mr. Standfast, ch. 20:

     Only Peter was out of the picture. He was a strange, disconsolate figure, as he shifted about to ease his leg, or gazed incuriously from the window.

   • 1921, Margaret Pedler, The Lamp of Fate, ch. 30:

     Magda devoting her life to good works seemed altogether out of the picture!

Antonyms

• in the picture

Adverb

out of the picture ‎(comparative more out of the picture, superlative most out of the picture)

1. (idiomatic) In a manner resulting in removal from involvement in a situation.
   • 1966 Oct. 7, "Executives: Man of the Future," Time:

     Within a year, his scientists had worked out a system that virtually elbowed CBS out of the picture.

References

• out of the picture at OneLook Dictionary Search