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outstrip

[out-strip]
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verb (used with object), out·stripped, out·strip·ping.
  1. to outdo; surpass; excel.
  2. to outdo or pass in running or swift travel: A car can outstrip the local train.
  3. to get ahead of or leave behind in a race or in any course of competition.
  4. to exceed: a demand that outstrips the supply.

Origin of outstrip

First recorded in 1570–80; out- + strip1
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for outstripping

Contemporary Examples

Historical Examples

  • But Godwin, outstripping them, declared there should be none whatsoever.

    Mary Wollstonecraft

    Elizabeth Robins Pennell

  • The two pairs of girls were intent only on outstripping each other.

    Madge Morton's Secret

    Amy D. V. Chalmers

  • A hunter, outstripping the King's retinue, came first to seize the prey.

  • "Or it is quite likely that we are outstripping them," added Reeves.

    Captured at Tripoli

    Percy F. Westerman

  • The difficulty was that the boys' minds were outstripping it.

    Sube Cane

    Edward Bellamy Partridge

British Dictionary definitions for outstripping

outstrip

verb -strips, -stripping or -stripped (tr)
  1. to surpass in a sphere of activity, competition, etc
  2. to be or grow greater than
  3. to go faster than and leave behind
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for outstripping

outstrip

v.

1570s, "to pass in running," from out + Middle English strip "move quickly," of unknown origin. Figurative sense of "to excel or surpass in anything" is from 1590s. Related: Outstripped; outstripping.

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper