out-of-pocket
Americanadjective
-
paid out in cash or from one's own financial resources and sometimes reimbursed.
My out-of-pocket travel expenses included taking business clients to dinner.
-
without funds or assets.
an out-of-pocket student who stayed with us.
adjective
-
(postpositive) having lost money, as in a commercial enterprise
-
without money to spend
-
(prenominal) (of expenses) unbudgeted and paid for in cash
-
Lacking money; also, having suffered a financial loss, as in We can't go; I'm out of pocket right now . William Congreve had it in The Old Bachelor (1693): “But egad, I'm a little out of pocket at present.” [Late 1600s]
-
Referring to actual money spent, as in I had to pay the hotel bill out of pocket, but I know I'll be reimbursed . This expression sometimes occurs as a hyphenated adjective mainly in the phrase out-of-pocket expenses , as in My out-of-pocket expenses for business travel amounted to more than a thousand dollars . [Late 1800s]
Etymology
Origin of out-of-pocket
First recorded in 1880–85
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.
By contrast, out-of-pocket spending, the size of the surgical workforce per 1000 people, and health spending as a percentage of GDP currently explain less of the variation in outcomes.
From Science Daily
Some insurance—covering emergencies, for instance—may be better than none, but consumers should be careful when they sign up, and understand all the restrictions and out-of-pocket costs.
From Barron's
Told baldness is generally seen as an aesthetic problem covered out-of-pocket, Lee retorted that young people with thinning hair view their plight as a “matter of survival.”
Cheaper insulin: Large group health plans must cap the out-of-pocket costs for insulin at $35 for a 30-day supply under SB 40.
From Los Angeles Times
But the IRA capped Medicare out-of-pocket costs for prescription drugs at $2,000, shifting the liability for higher-cost drugs from patients to Part D plans and manufacturers.
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.
