Synonyms

outwear

American

[aut-wair] / ˌaʊtˈwɛər /

verb (used with object)

to wear or last longer than; outlast.

a well-made product that outwears its competition.
to exhaust in strength or endurance.

The daily toil had soon outworn him.
to outlive or outgrow.

Perhaps he will outwear those eccentricities.
to wear out; destroy by wearing.

A child outwears clothes quickly.
to pass (time).

trying to outwear the hours by reading.

outwear British

/ ˌaʊtˈwɛə /

verb

to use up or destroy by wearing
to last or wear longer than
to outlive, outgrow, or develop beyond
to deplete or exhaust in strength, determination, etc

"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

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Inflected Forms

Participles

Conjugated Forms

Present

Past

Future

Etymology

Origin of outwear

First recorded in 1535–45; out- + wear

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.

See Examples For:

outwear outwears outwore outworn outwearing

It was a carnival of outwear that could only be matched by typing “Rococo” into the Amazon search bar.

From Salon ● Jan. 21, 2025

There is an emphasis on architecture in the outwear, but with a more feminine touch.

From Seattle Times ● Feb. 23, 2023

The label emphasized outwear with lengthened silhouettes, ranging from tailored coats to puffed-out bomber jackets, and sprinkled some artwork and logos into the mix.

From Reuters ● Jan. 19, 2023

Notably, this is the second time in recent months that Pelosi’s outwear has made fashion headlines.

From Fox News ● Jun. 14, 2019

The brutal aspects overlap and outwear; refinement has the feebler and more ephemeral hold on reality.

From A Pluralistic Universe Hibbert Lectures at Manchester College on the Present Situation in Philosophy by William James

It outwears the protests and appeals of total generations of unhelped, indignant hearts.

From Abraham Lincoln's Cardinal Traits; A Study in Ethics, with an Epilogue Addressed to Theologians by Clark S. Beardslee

"An observant eye is better than a yearning ear, and patience outwears curiosity!"

From Caves of Terror by Talbot Mundy

"Love is the greatest Amulet that makes this world a garden: and 'Hope comes to all' outwears the accidents of life; and reaches with tremulous hands beyond the grave and Death."

From The Great Amulet by Maud Diver

If they who hate the trespass most, Yet, when all other love is lost, Love the poor sinner, marvel not; Christ's mark outwears the rankest blot.

From The Christian Year by John Keble

For the sword outwears its sheath, And the soul wears out the breast, And the heart must pause to breathe, And love itself have rest.

From Bulchevy's Book of English Verse by Sir Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch

For, we never got over it; the threadbare Orrery outwore our mutual tenderness; the man with the wand was too much for the boy with the bow.

From The Uncommercial Traveller by Charles Dickens

But his rival, the Briton, had qualities which outwore him, and the patriarchal and stable methods of the Hudson's Bay Company prevailed in the end.

From Old Quebec The Fortress of New France by Claude Glennon Bryan

Forgive me, mother, if my whims outwore Your patient heart.

From The Verse-Book of a Homely Woman by Fay Inchfawn

Thou sayest my faith has been forfeit, O fair in thy glittering raiment; But I wearied my steed and outwore it, And for what but the love that bare thee?

From The Life and Death of Cormac the Skald by W. G. (William Gershom) Collingwood

They call the days the Golden Days that 'neath that king outwore, Amid such happiness of peace o'er men-folk did he reign.

From The Æneids of Virgil Done into English Verse by William Morris

Setting recent works among older ones is an effective element of LACMA’s overall plan to shed outworn hierarchies.

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 22, 2026

Could I remount the river of my years To the first fountain of our smiles and tears I would not trace again its stream of hours Between its outworn banks of withered flowers.

From Salon ● Dec. 25, 2021

That “hacky, grinding, stinking, outworn, spaceship yarn,” as science fiction author Wilson Tucker memorably put it when he coined the term in 1941.

From Washington Post ● Dec. 17, 2021

Labor-intensive, visually compelling works by the Bahamian artist seem to challenge outworn heroes and cultural assumptions of the Western canon, yet some of Strachan’s simplest pieces may be his most pleasing.

From Seattle Times ● Feb. 6, 2018

That was not the way to destroy people’s outworn beliefs .

From "Black Boy" by Richard Wright

Again, it was her heart "outwearing its sheath," as she put it.

From Elsie Marley, Honey by Joslyn Gray

That gave father-strength for bearing Famine-need and sword, Honor death itself outwearing, And it gave accord.

From Poems and Songs by Arthur Hubbell Palmer

But neither at the candle-lighted breakfast, nor later, when Ballard asked him if he were fit for a leisurely ride to the southern watershed for the day's outwearing, did he speak of young Carson's desertion.

From The King of Arcadia by Francis Lynde

I had asked her to go home with me, and she had refused because she is so afraid of outwearing her welcome.

From Grace Harlowe's Third Year at Overton College by Jessie Graham [pseud.] Flower

Lo! on pinions bright, The Love-god comes, a yellow cincture bearing, To bind thee ever to thy dear delight, In nuptial knot, all other knots outwearing.

From The Elegies of Tibullus Being the Consolations of a Roman Lover Done in English Verse by Theodore C. Williams

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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023