outsource

[out-sawrs, ‑-sohrs]

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.

verb (used without object)

outsourced, outsourcing 

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

   U.S. companies who outsource from China.

outsource

/ ˌaʊtˈsɔːs /

verb

1. to subcontract (work) to another company

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

Other Word Forms

• outsourcing noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of outsource¹

1975–80

Example Sentences

The U.S. employs an estimated 10,000 commercial sailors, a number that has fallen sharply over recent decades as America outsourced much of its shipping demands to China and other countries.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

India's software boom kicked off in the 1990s, with outsourcing companies striking gold.

Read more on Barron's

“I love my work, but my top priority is to raise my children, and that cannot be outsourced to someone else for eight hours a day, five days a week,” said Waters.

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Mergers and acquisitions can make policies nearly impossible to locate, HR departments outsource tasks and change those relationships, and old group policies may be discontinued, replaced and/or even transferred to new investment firms.

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Soon after the Israelis left, the regime’s religious leadership largely outsourced water issues to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the regime’s ideological enforcers.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal