-
straight-out
straight-outadjectivethoroughgoing.
-
straight out
straight outsee right out.
straight-out
Americanadjective
-
thoroughgoing.
a straight-out Democrat.
-
frank; aboveboard.
adjective
-
complete; thoroughgoing
-
frank or honest
Etymology
Origin of straight-out
1830–40, from phrase straight out
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.
See Examples For:
Miller doesn’t ask his clients straight-out if they’re homeless.
From Seattle Times ● Apr. 17, 2022
In the town of Cicely, there are very few people that are portrayed as just straight-out bad.
From Salon ● Sep. 10, 2020
The professionals, however, “are speaking out on a matter of public concern. These are straight-out retaliation cases.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 17, 2020
Like, just straight-out asked him, “What do you think of a show where we interview celebrities while making them eat violently hot chicken wings?”
From The Verge ● Oct. 31, 2019
Usually, he ends up by discussing something far afield, an act which incites skepticism and suspicion in those anxious for a straight-out explanation.
From "Native Son" by Richard Wright
![]()
Theirs is a story straight out of a Bollywood film.
From BBC ● Sep. 12, 2026
“I was using Riefenstahl to point out, or so I thought, that these heroes and heroines were straight out of Nazi propaganda,” Verhoeven told The Guardian in 2018.
From Salon ● Sep. 9, 2026
Clark’s Gen X parents earned computer science degrees in the 1990s and secured stable jobs with clear trajectories for career growth straight out of college.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 8, 2026
And, as David Kissinger put it: “My stepmother came from this Waspy world, straight out of a Katharine Hepburn film, and my father was a refugee from Nazi Germany.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 27, 2026
She could stand under his arm if he stuck it straight out, and never could keep up with him when they walked together.
From "Cold Sassy Tree" by Olive Ann Burns
![]()
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.