go out
Britishverb
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to depart from a room, house, country, etc
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to cease to illuminate, burn, or function
the fire has gone out
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to cease to be fashionable or popular
that style went out ages ago!
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to become unconscious or fall asleep
she went out like a light
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(of a broadcast) to be transmitted
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to go to entertainments, social functions, etc
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to associate (with a person of the opposite sex) regularly; date
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(of workers) to begin to strike
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(foll by to) to be extended (to)
our sympathy went out to her on the death of her sister
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cards to get rid of the last card, token, etc, in one's hand
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to make a great effort to achieve or obtain something
he went all out to pass the exam
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Be extinguished, as in All the lights went out . [c. 1400]
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Die; also, faint. For example, I want to go out before I become senile , or At the sight of blood he went out like a light . The first usage dates from about 1700 and was at first put go out of the world . For the variant, see under out cold .
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Take part in social life outside the home, as in We go out a lot during the holiday season . This usage dates from the second half of the 1700s and gave rise to go out with someone , meaning “to date someone.”
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Stop working, as in To show their support of the auto workers, the steel workers went out too . This expression is short for go out on strike . [Late 1800s]
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Become unfashionable, as in Bell-bottom pants went out in the 1970s but made a comeback in the 1990s. This usage is sometimes amplified to go out of fashion or go out of style , as in This kind of film has gone out of fashion , or These boots are going out of style . [Late 1400s]
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Cease to function as before. This sense appears in go out of print , said of a book that will no longer be printed. Also see the subsequent idioms beginning with go 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.
“We were encouraged to go out and see the world in a way that wasn’t necessarily vacation-oriented,” adds Armstrong, whose mother is a retired world-cultures professor and took him on research trips to South America.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 5, 2026
“In this case you have a lot of voters out there who may not be inclined to go out there and vote.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 3, 2026
"When the men work far away, the women who stay in the village have to go out themselves to put out the fire," Mita said.
From Barron's ● Sep. 30, 2026
When you’re out in these rural areas, the thing where you go out the most, to get dressed, is to go to church on Sunday.
From Slate ● Sep. 28, 2026
I go out with Rhys, even though I don’t have the energy to pretend I want to.
From "Red Flags and Butterflies" by Sheryl Azzam
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.
