put out

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put out (plural put outs)

1. Misspelling of putout.

put out (comparative more put out, superlative most put out)

1. Taking offense; indignant.

   He was put out at the mere suggestion of misconduct.

   • 1991 May 4, Elizabeth Yukins, “Maryland Passes Gay Hate Crimes Bill”, in Gay Community News, page 2:

     Gordon told GCN that when the bill was first reviewed in the House, it received a 70-49 vote, one vote short of the majority it needed to pass. Gordon said that gay and lesbian activists were "extremely put-out" over this narrow loss.

put out (third-person singular simple present puts out, present participle putting out, simple past and past participle put out)

1. (transitive) To blind (eyes).

   You can't have a pair of scissors! You'll put your eye out!

2. (transitive) To place outside, to remove, particularly

   Don’t forget to put out the dog.

   1. To expel.

      Synonyms: boot out, eject, kick out

      • 1991 September, Stephen Fry, chapter 1, in The Liar, London: Heinemann, →ISBN, →OCLC, section I, page 19:

        ‘These guys,’ said Tom, ‘the ones who put out this magazine at Radley. What happened to them?’ […]
        ‘Ah, now this is why we must proceed with great circumspection. They were both, hum, “put out” themselves. “Booted out” I believe is the technical phrase.’

   2. To remove from office.

      Synonyms: depose, impeach

3. (transitive) To cause something to be out, particularly
   1. To cause someone to be out of sorts; to annoy, impose, inconvenience, or disturb.

      Synonyms: perturb, unsettle; see also Thesaurus:upset

      I don't mean to put you out. It's just vital that I get this done tonight.

      • 1885, William Dean Howells, chapter XII, in The Rise of Silas Lapham‎^[1]:

        “Then you didn't find her so amusing as Tom does?”
        “I found her pert. There's no other word for it. She says things to puzzle you and put you out.”

   2. (sports) To knock out: to eliminate from a competition.
      • 2011 October 1, Tom Fordyce, “Rugby World Cup 2011: England 16-12 Scotland”, in BBC Sport‎^[2]:

        England stumbled into the World Cup quarter-finals and almost certainly put Scotland out after an error-ridden victory at Eden Park.

   3. (baseball and cricket) To cause a player on offense to be out.
   4. (boxing and medicine) Synonym of knock out: to render unconscious.
4. (intransitive) To go out, to head out, especially (sailing) to set sail.

   Synonyms: set out, start out; see also Thesaurus:leave

   • c. 1900, O. Henry, The Missing Chord:

     Along about Tuesday Uncle Cal put out for San Antone on the last wagonload of wool.

5. (transitive) To cause something to go out, particularly
   1. To produce, to emit.

      Synonyms: give off, send out

      The factory puts out 4000 units each day.

      This unit puts out 4000 BTUs.

   2. (obsolete) To express.
   3. To broadcast, to publish.
      • 1991 September, Stephen Fry, chapter 1, in The Liar, London: Heinemann, →ISBN, →OCLC, section I, page 19:

        ‘These guys,’ said Tom, ‘the ones who put out this magazine at Radley. What happened to them?’ […]
        ‘Ah, now this is why we must proceed with great circumspection. They were both, hum, “put out” themselves. “Booted out” I believe is the technical phrase.’

   4. To dislocate (a joint).

      Lift with your knees. Don’t put out your back.

   5. To extinguish (fire).

      Synonyms: douse, extinct

      They worked for days to put out the brushfire.

      She put out her cigarette.

      One of the accident victims had to be put out by the passers-by.

      • c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Othello, the Moore of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene ii]:

        Yet she must dye, else shee'l betray more men:
        Put out the Light, and then put out the Light:
        If I quench thee, thou flaming Minister,
        I can againe thy former light restore,
        Should I repent me. But once put out thy Light,
        Thou cunning'st Patterne of excelling Nature,
        I know not where is that Promethaean heate
        That can thy Light re-Lume.

      • [1898], J[ohn] Meade Falkner, Moonfleet, London; Toronto, Ont.: Jonathan Cape, published 1934, →OCLC:

        […] in a second I had put out the candle, scrambled up the shelves, half-stunned my senses with dashing my head against the roof, and squeezed my body betwixt wall and coffin.

   6. To turn off (light).
      • 2010, Terry Deary, Put out the Light, p. 10:

        'You talk funny,' I said to him. 'I mean, the other wardens say, "Put that light out", but you shout, "Put out the light".'
        'Shakespeare,' the warden said in a deep voice.

      Put out those lights before the Germans see them.

7. (intransitive, originally US slang) To consent to having sex.

   Synonyms: open one's legs, spread one's legs

   • 1928 December, Our Army, page 19:

     Don't them laundry queens put out good enough to suit you?

   • 1934, James T. Farrell, chapter 17, in The Young Manhood of Studs Lonigan:

     Christ, maybe that blond was only a bitch after all. Maybe she put out even to the punks. Come to think of it, she looked a little hard-boiled.

   • 1961 November 10, Joseph Heller, Catch-22 […], New York, N.Y.: Simon and Schuster, →OCLC:

     Aarfy […] tried to dissuade them from ever putting out for anyone but their husbands.

   • 1964, Hubert Selby Jr., Last Exit to Brooklyn, New York: Grove Press, page 95:

     Nobody likes a cockteaser. Either you put out or you dont.^[sic]

   • 1975, David Lodge, Changing Places: A Tale of Two Campuses, page 232:

     If she won't put out the men will accuse her of being bourgeois and uptight.

   • 2003, Elizabeth M. Noble, Reading Group, page 205:

     I can't afford to waste a Saturday night here with some married bird who isn't putting out.

   • 2005, William Heffernan, A Time Gone By:

     This Grosso dated this woman a couple of times, and then, when she wouldn't put out for him, he beat her up and forced her.

• The object in all transitive senses can come before or after the particle. If it is a pronoun, then it must come before the particle.

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