outskirts
Britishplural noun
Explanation
Some people like to live downtown. Others prefer the open spaces of the suburbs. But if you live in between the two, you are in the outskirts, the place where the city ends and the suburbs begin. Outskirts describes the outer edge of a city or town, farthest from the center but still technically part of that place. If you had a city map, you could draw a line on all sides where crowded streets filled with apartment buildings and businesses begin to give way to single-family houses and country roads. You might not get a perfect circle but you will see that outskirts are those border places between the city and the little towns that surround it.
Vocabulary lists containing outskirts
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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.
After laying their family members to rest, the brothers went to live with their father in a modest, work-class neighbourhood of low-rise houses in the north-eastern outskirts of Cali, Colombia.
From BBC ● Aug. 14, 2026
As a result, they can move through galactic outskirts without being noticed by telescopes on Earth.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 6, 2026
On Sunday, two Bell helicopters collided while operating on the western outskirts of Athens, killing a Danish pilot and his Greek co-pilot.
From Barron's ● Aug. 4, 2026
He also ramped up the blight elimination campaign, using state and city funds and a $3 million grant from the Hard Rock Casino, which opened on the outskirts of Gary in 2021.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 4, 2026
Trying to outwit any government pursuers, he at first stayed at a small hotel and then at an inn on the outskirts of town.
From "Endgame" by Frank Brady
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.
