outsource

American  

[aut-sawrs, -sohrs] / ˈaʊtˌsɔrs, -ˌsoʊrs /

verb (used with object)

outsourced, outsourcing

1. (of a company or organization) to purchase (goods) or subcontract (services) from an outside supplier or source.

2. to contract out (jobs, services, etc.).

   a small business that outsources bookkeeping to an accounting firm.

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verb (used without object)

outsourced, outsourcing

1. to obtain goods or services from an outside source.

   U.S. companies who outsource from China.

outsource British  

/ ˌaʊtˈsɔːs /

verb

1. to subcontract (work) to another company

2. to buy in (components for a product) rather than manufacture them

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Other Word Forms

• outsourcing
  noun

Etymology

Origin of outsource

1975–80

Explanation

To outsource is to hire someone outside a company to do work. A newspaper might outsource some of its stories, paying freelance writers instead of using its full-time staff. When a business outsources, they either employ someone who freelances or works for another company, or they buy supplies from outside the company. Either way, it often involves paying less for the labor or goods, and many companies save money by outsourcing from other countries. This business term is relatively new, emerging in the 1980s from the verb source, "obtain from a particular source."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

outsource outsourced outsourcing

Adults’ performance on a given task tends to diminish the more they outsource that job to technology, a phenomenon known as skill erosion.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 14, 2026

It warned: "Councils cannot outsource their safeguarding duty."

From BBC ● Aug. 5, 2026

The company has chosen to outsource a portion of its AI capabilities through a partnership with Google Gemini.

From MarketWatch ● Jul. 7, 2026

Back then they were making, at most, 10 a day; now they outsource manufacturing to China.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 30, 2026

And this created a great incentive for them to outsource some of this analytical work to places like Bangalore.

From "The World Is Flat" by Thomas L. Friedman

He said cuts to British Transport Police funding had been "disastrous" and called for outsourced security and enforcement staff to be brought in-house "as a matter of urgency".

From BBC ● Sep. 24, 2026

In mid-July, the company — which also operates as Taylor Fresh Foods — removed the outsourced lettuce from the U.S. market and issued a voluntary recall of potentially contaminated products.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 12, 2026

Because springing for and maintaining a fleet of its own is costly, ICE has historically outsourced its deportation flights to private companies or used military and Coast Guard vessels.

From Slate ● Aug. 18, 2026

The alternative to outsourced childcare has a few invisible price tags, however.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 5, 2026

Still, franchisees of two other McDonald’s restaurants, beyond Davis’s, have outsourced their drive-through ordering to Bigari in Colorado Springs.

From "The World Is Flat" by Thomas L. Friedman

But your robot shopper doesn’t watch TV, and if you’re outsourcing the shopping to it, you are not giving Amazon the same chance to harvest dollars from you as you walk through the digital store.

From Slate ● Sep. 23, 2026

But she might care if he’s outsourcing his part of a team project to it, leaving her feeling uncertain about his ability to present his work in front of a client next week.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 11, 2026

Ludlam told the inquest that by the end of 2022 the health board was no longer dealing with a backlog in part due to outsourcing, which he said they were still using today.

From BBC ● Sep. 11, 2026

By outsourcing my habits to an app, I felt like I was more and more disembodied from my own well-being.

From Slate ● Sep. 6, 2026

So even with the outsourcing of some service jobs from the United States to India, India’s growing economy is creating a demand for many more American goods and services.

From "The World Is Flat" by Thomas L. Friedman