English

Verb

stick out ‎(third-person singular simple present sticks out, present participle sticking out, simple past and past participle stuck out)

1. To protrude; to extend beyond.

   I can fit the pipe in my car, but one end will stick out the back.

   He stuck out his tongue at me.

   • 1922, Margery Williams, The Velveteen Rabbit

     Their feet padded softly on the ground, and they crept quite close to him, twitching their noses, while the Rabbit stared hard to see which side the clockwork stuck out, for he knew that people who jump generally have something to wind them up. But he couldn't see it. They were evidently a new kind of rabbit altogether.

   • 1900, L. Frank Baum, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

     "Your house did, anyway," replied the little old woman, with a laugh, "and that is the same thing. See!" she continued, pointing to the corner of the house. "There are her two feet, still sticking out from under a block of wood."

     Dorothy looked, and gave a little cry of fright. There, indeed, just under the corner of the great beam the house rested on, two feet were sticking out, shod in silver shoes with pointed toes.

2. (idiomatic) To be prominent, noticeable, or obtrusive.

   The one red wall really sticks out among all the creamy ones.

3. To persist. See stick it out.

Derived terms

• stick out like a sore thumb

Translations