out-of-sight
Americanadjective
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Slang. fantastic; great; marvelous.
an out-of-sight guitarist.
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beyond reason; exceedingly high.
out-of-sight hospital bills.
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Also, out of someone's sight . Out of the range of vision, as in Stay out of sight while they're visiting , or Don't let the baby out of your sight in the yard . [c. 1200] This idiom is also used in the phrase get out of someone's sight , meaning “go away”; for example, Jean was furious with Bill and told him to get out of her sight at once .
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Unreasonable, excessive, as in Our bill for the wine was out of sight . [ Colloquial ; late 1800s]
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Excellent, superb, as in The graduation party was out of sight . This phrase is also used as an interjection meaning “Wonderful!” as in Do I like it? Out of sight! [ Slang ; second half of 1900s]
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out of sight , out of mind . What is absent is soon forgotten, as in I don't think of them unless they send a Christmas card—out of sight, out of mind, I guess . This phrase has been proverbial since Homer's time; the earliest recorded use in English was about 1450.
Etymology
Origin of out-of-sight
An Americanism dating back to 1895–1900
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.
I soon learned from another staff member that when a person’s travel location is input into the system, it’s enclosed by an out-of-sight geofence.
From Slate • Dec. 13, 2023
Striding along an arroyo lined with creosote brush, smoke trees and countless out-of-sight animal burrows and washes, Clarke said, “We favor renewable energy but not here.”
From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 6, 2023
Throughout, he maintains his remarkable stillness, save his out-of-sight hands Geppetto-ing the dummy’s mouth.
From New York Times • Dec. 27, 2022
Like challenges adjudicated in a far-off room by out-of-sight officials.
From Seattle Times • Oct. 4, 2022
They heard uproar from the distant boundary of the school as what sounded like hundreds of people came swarming over the out-of-sight walls and pelted toward the castle, uttering loud war cries.
From "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" by J.K. Rowling
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.
