at the outset

1. Also, from the outset. At the start, from the start. For example, He wanted to explain his position from the outset, but there wasn't time, or At the outset the problem seemed simple, but then it became quite complicated. The noun outset is rarely heard today except in these phrases. [Mid-1700s]

Example Sentences

Their disappointments came later, but at least there were plenty of opportunities at the outset.

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It’s difficult at the outset, though, to make a side-by-side comparison of the optimal plan of each type, Medicare Advantage or Medigap, and then do that basic math to calculate whether the monthly premium outweighs the maximum out-of-pocket cost.

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At the outset of this season, Reaves will be counted on to take on a bigger role — something he showed he was capable of last season when he averaged 20.2 points, 4.5 rebounds and 5.8 assists.

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At the outset of the dot-com boom, then-Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan, though worried about “irrational exuberance,” concluded that the Fed shouldn’t raise interest rates to deflate bubbles: pricking them would do more damage than letting them deflate on their own.

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It is worth at the outset stressing that Mr Cash and Mr Berry have consistently denied wrongdoing, the claims against them have never been tested in court and the government's witness statements proceed explicitly on the basis that the allegations levelled by counter-terror police are true.

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Related Words

• initially 
• originally