outstrip
Americanverb (used with object)
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to outdo; surpass; excel.
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to outdo or pass in running or swift travel.
A car can outstrip the local train.
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to get ahead of or leave behind in a race or in any course of competition.
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to exceed.
a demand that outstrips the supply.
verb
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to surpass in a sphere of activity, competition, etc
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to be or grow greater than
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to go faster than and leave behind
Etymology
Origin of outstrip
Explanation
While outstrip might make you think about undressing, it really means outdoing. If the productivity of your garden outstrips your neighbor's, expect the neighborhood to come calling for fresh vegetables. If one thing outstrips another, it exceeds it or goes beyond it. When you outstrip someone during a race, you pass them. When one company’s profits outstrip another’s, they make more money. When the productivity of one nation outstrips the neighboring nation, they will have a bigger Gross National Product.
Vocabulary lists containing outstrip
Flowers for Algernon
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Grendel
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Sapiens
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Long-serving trainer Saeed Bin Suroor culminating in the Champion Stakes, while Al Zarooni's replacement, and former assistant, Charlie Appleby celebrated a first success at the Breeders' Cup meeting with Outstrip.
From BBC • Apr. 22, 2014
Outstrip him as a lawgiver, whom in arms you overcame!
From The Glory of English Prose Letters to My Grandson by Coleridge, Stephen
Between his tail and bright old eye The swift communications Outstrip the messages which fly From telegraphic stations.
From The Poems of Henry Kendall With Biographical Note by Bertram Stevens by Kendall, Henry
Outstrip the winds, and leave behind The murmur of the restless waves;Nor tarry with your glorious news, Amid the ocean's coral caves.
Outstrip, owt-strip′, v.t. to outrun: to leave behind: to escape beyond one's reach.
From Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary (part 3 of 4: N-R) by Various
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
