outlet
[out-let, -lit]
- an opening or passage by which anything is let out; vent; exit.
- Electricity.
- a point on a wiring system at which current is taken to supply electric devices.
- Also called outlet box.the metal box or receptacle designed to facilitate connections to a wiring system.
- a means of expression or satisfaction: an outlet for one's artistic impulses.
- a market for goods.
- a store, merchant, or agency selling the goods of a particular wholesaler or manufacturer.
- a local radio or television station that broadcasts the programs of a large network.
- a river or stream flowing from a body of water, as a lake or pond.
- the channel such a river or stream follows.
- the lower end or mouth of a river where it meets a large body of water, as a lake or the sea.
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Origin of outlet
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Related Words
channel, shop, market, showroom, orifice, vent, opening, tear, spout, escape, break, aperture, egress, exit, crack, release, hole, avenue, nozzle, ductExamples from the Web for outlet
Contemporary Examples
With no family, little community support, and no outlet for education, they face a bleak future.
Novellas, movies, rants, columns, docudramas—creative lefties left no outlet unturned.
He said Diana was looking for “an outlet to take them on,” adding, “They were quite a powerful organization: they still are.”
Film was an outlet, and the intricately crafted pieces—regardless of who made them—told their own stories.
The outlet was almost shut down entirely in the early 2000s.
Banter With The Beast: MSNBC’s Head Honcho Phil Griffin on Admiring Roger Ailes and MoreLloyd Grove
January 30, 2014
Historical Examples
This fjord has its outlet in Barkley Sound on the west side of the island.
Indian Legends of Vancouver IslandAlfred Carmichael
In man, the gateway to the soul; in woman, the outlet of the heart.
The Devil's DictionaryAmbrose Bierce
There was also an outlet to the street to carry off the overflow.
Buried Cities: Pompeii, Olympia, MycenaeJennie Hall
No water could be seen, however, as a sharp turn cut off our view of the outlet.
Micah ClarkeArthur Conan Doyle
We were prisoners there with no outlet, and so our death was only a question of time.
outlet
- an opening or vent permitting escape or release
- a means for release or expression of emotion, creative energy, etc
- a market for a product or service
- a commercial establishment retailing the goods of a particular producer or wholesaler
- a channel that drains a body of water
- the mouth of a river
- a point in a wiring system from which current can be taken to supply electrical devices
- anatomy the beginning or end of a passage, esp the lower opening of the pelvis (pelvic outlet)
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Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for outlet
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper