Definition of "outgo"
outgo
verb
third-person singular simple present outgoes, present participle outgoing, simple past outwent, past participle outgone
(transitive)
(archaic) To go further than (someone or something); to exceed, to go beyond, to surpass.
Quotations
So then it will alwayes bee found trew, that God outgoeth all our prayers, and all our wiſhes.
1577, Iohn Calvin, “The .XXI. Sermon, which is the Sixth vppon the Third Chapter, and the First vppon the Fourth”, in Arthur Golding, transl., The Sermons of M. Iohn Calvin, vpon the Epistle of S. Paule too the Ephesians. […], London: […] Lucas Harison, and George Byshop, folio 150, recto
Shepheards delights he dooth them all forſweare, / Hys pleaſaunt Pipe, whych made vs meriment, / He wylfully hath broke, and doth forbeare / His wonted ſongs, wherein he all outwent.
1579, Immeritô [pseudonym; Edmund Spenser], “Aprill. Aegloga Quarta.”, in The Shepheardes Calender: […], London: […] Hugh Singleton, […]; reprinted as H[einrich] Oskar Sommer, editor, The Shepheardes Calender […], London: John C. Nimmo, […], 1890, folio 12, recto
But when they came, where thou thy ſkill didſt ſhowe, / They drewe abacke, as halfe with ſhame confound, / Shepheard to ſee, them in theyr art outgoe.
1579, Immeritô [pseudonym; Edmund Spenser], “Iune. Aegloga Sexta.”, in The Shepheardes Calender: […], London: […] Hugh Singleton, […]; reprinted as H[einrich] Oskar Sommer, editor, The Shepheardes Calender […], London: John C. Nimmo, […], 1890, folio 23, verso
[T]hy head ſhall ouerlooke the reſt, / As much as thou in rage out vvent'ſt the reſt.
1594 (first publication), Christopher Marlow[e], The Trovblesome Raigne and Lamentable Death of Edvvard the Second, King of England: […], London: […] [Eliot’s Court Press] for Henry Bell, […], published 1622, [Act III]
Valor hath his limites, as other vertues have: vvhich if a man out-go, hee ſhall finde himſelfe in the traine of vice: […]
1603, Michel de Montaigne, “Men are Punished by Too-much Opinionating Themselves in a Place without Reason”, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], page 23
Ah! vvas it not enough that thou / By thy eternall glorie didſt outgo me?
, George Herbert, “The Reprisall”, in [Nicholas Ferrar], editor, The Temple: Sacred Poems, and Private Ejaculations, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: […] Thomas Buck and Roger Daniel; and are to be sold by Francis Green, […]; reprinted London: Elliot Stock, […], 1885, page 28
As the infamy of the conduct of Rhode Island outgoes all precedent, so the influence of her counsels can be of no prejudice.
1788 July 20, George Washington, “Go. Washington to Jonathn. Trumbull Esqr.”, in Documentary History of the Constitution of the United States of America. 1786–1870. […] Part 1.—Letters and Papers Relating to the Constitution, to July 31, 1788 (Bulletin of the Bureau of Rolls and Library of the Department of State; no. 11, part 1), Washington, D.C.: Department of State, published September 1905, page 808
Danger, long travel, want, or woe, / Soon change the form that best we know— / For deadly fear can time outgo, / And blaunch at once the hair; […]
1808 February 22, Walter Scott, “Canto First. The Castle.”, in Marmion; a Tale of Flodden Field, Edinburgh: […] J[ames] Ballantyne and Co. for Archibald Constable and Company, […]; London: William Miller, and John Murray, stanza XXIX, page 51
When much intercourse with a friend has supplied us with a standard of excellence, and has increased our respect for the resources of God who thus sends a real person to outgo our ideal; […] —it is a sign to us that his office is closing, and he is commonly withdrawn from our sight in a short time.
1836, [Ralph Waldo Emerson], “Discipline”, in Nature, Boston, Mass.: James Munroe and Company, page 58
Ah, Pistoia! Pistoia! why dost thou not decree to burn thyself outright, that thou mayest endure no longer, since thou outgoest thy seed in evil-doing?
1849, Dante Alighieri, “Canto XXV”, in John A[itken] Carlyle, transl., Dante’s Divine Comedy: The Inferno. A Literal Prose Translation, […], London: Chapman and Hall, […], pages 296–297
Ye do outgo / Mad Korah. Boy, this is the Dale / Of Doom, God's last assizes; so, / Curb thee; even if sharp grief assail, / Respect these precincts lest thou know / An ill.
1876, Herman Melville, “Canto XXX. The Valley of Decision.”, in Clarel: A Poem and Pilgrimage in the Holy Land. […], volume II, New York, N.Y.: G[eorge] P[almer] Putnam’s Sons […], part IV (Bethlehem), page 559
As Professor [John] Fiske outgoes [William] Maginn, Professor [John Churton] Collins outgoes Fiske. He ascribes to [William] Shakespeare, in effect, a greater facility in Latin than is possessed by many professional scholars, because much of Latin is for any man far harder, more elliptic, more obscure than is any modern French for a cultivated modern Englishman.
1909, John M[ackinnon] Robertson, “The Learning of Shakespeare”, in Montaigne and Shakespeare: And Other Essays on Cognate Questions, 2nd edition, London: Adam and Charles Black, part I, pages 301–302
(obsolete)
To experience, go through, or undergo (something).
Quotations
So ſince the vvinged God his planet cleare, / began in me to moue, one yeare is ſpent: / the vvhich doth longer vnto me appeare, / then al thoſe fourty vvhich my life outvvent.
1595, Edmunde Spenser [i.e., Edmund Spenser], “[Amoretti.] Sonnet LX”, in Amoretti and Epithalamion. […], London: […] [Peter Short] for William Ponsonby; reprinted in Amoretti and Epithalamion (The Noel Douglas Replicas), London: Noel Douglas […], 1927,
To travel faster than (someone or something); to outstrip, to overtake.
Quotations
So trauelling, he chaunſt far off to heed, / A Damzell, flying on a palfrey faſt / Before tvvo Knights, […] Yet fled ſhe faſt, and both them farre outvvent, / Carried vvith vvings of feare, like fovvle aghaſt, / VVith locks all looſe, and rayment all to rent; […]
1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book V, Canto VIII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], part II (books IV–VI), London: […] [Richard Field] for William Ponsonby, stanza 4, page 282
VVhat, ſhall vve talk further vvith him? or out-go him at preſent? and ſo leave him to think of vvhat he hath heard already; and then ſtop again for him aftervvards, and ſee if by degrees vve can do any good of him?
1678, John Bunyan, The Pilgrim’s Progress from This World, to That which is to Come: […], London: […] Nath[aniel] Ponder […]; reprinted in The Pilgrim’s Progress (The Noel Douglas Replicas), London: Noel Douglas, […], 1928, page 164
Then ſaid By-ends, […] I muſt do as I did before you overtook me, even go by my ſelf, untill ſome overtake me that vvill be glad of my Company. Then Chriſtian and Hopeful outvvent him, and vvent till they came at a delicate Plain, called Eaſe, vvhere they vvent vvith much content; but that plain vvas but narrovv, ſo they vvere quickly got over it.
1678, John Bunyan, The Pilgrim’s Progress from This World, to That which is to Come: […], London: […] Nath[aniel] Ponder […]; reprinted in The Pilgrim’s Progress (The Noel Douglas Replicas), London: Noel Douglas, […], 1928, page 206
For as much as Time, is alvvaies Scattered and Stretched out in Length, and Diſtance, one moment follovving after another; but Eternity remaineth in the ſame, vvithout any Flux, and yet nevertheleſs outgoeth Time, and tranſcendeth the Flux thereof, though ſeeming to be ſtretched and ſpun out more into Length.
1678, R[alph] Cudworth, chapter V, in The True Intellectual System of the Universe: The First Part; wherein All the Reason and Philosophy of Atheism is Confuted; and Its Impossibility Demonstrated, London: […] Richard Royston, […], page 781
The tvvo Travellers ſet out together, one on horeſback, the other on foot: Novv as it generally happens that he on horſeback outgoes him on foot, the Cuſtom is, that vvhen he arrives at the Diſtance agreed on, he is to diſmount, tie the Horſe to ſome Gate, Tree, Poſt, or other thing, and then proceed on foot; vvhen the other comes up to the Horſe, he unties him, mounts and gallops on, […]
1743, Henry Fielding, “A Surprizing Instance of Mr. Adams’s Short Memory, with the Unfortunate Consequences which It Brought on Joseph”, in The History of the Adventures of Joseph Andrews, and His Friend Mr. Abraham Adams. […], 3rd edition, volume I, London: […] A[ndrew] Millar, […], book II, page 100
Ever he gazed earnestly on the main battle of the Romans, and what they were doing, and presently it became clear to him that they would outgo him and come to the ford, and then he wotted well that they would set on him just when their light-armed were on his flank and his rearward, and then it would go hard but they would break their array and all would be lost: […]
1889, William Morris, “Otter and His Folk Come into Mid-mark”, in A Tale of the House of the Wolfings and All the Kindreds of the Mark […], London: Reeves and Turner […], page 126
(intransitive)
(archaic except poetic and Britain, regional) To go out, to set forth, to set out.
Quotations
I ſawe a ſhole of ſhepheardes outgoe, / With ſinging, and ſhouting, and iolly chere: […]
1579, Immeritô [pseudonym; Edmund Spenser], “May. Aegloga Quinta.”, in The Shepheardes Calender: […], London: […] Hugh Singleton, […]; reprinted as H[einrich] Oskar Sommer, editor, The Shepheardes Calender […], London: John C. Nimmo, […], 1890, folio 16, verso
And in the middle sea they chanced to meet; / Up goes the trump; with shots and shouts they greet, / And hasten them to set on with the sun; / With grisly sound outgoeth the great gun, […]
1845, James Russell Lowell, “First Conversation. Chaucer.”, in Conversations on Some of the Old Poets, Cambridge, Mass.: John Owen, page 99
(obsolete) To go too far; to overextend or overreach.
Quotations
But John / (Our Friend) Molleſſon, / Thought us to have out-gone / VVith a quaint Invention.
1668, John Denham, “On My Lord Croft’s and My Journey into Poland, from whence We Brought 10000 l. for His Majesty by the Decimation of His Scottish Subjects there”, in Poems and Translations, with The Sophy, 4th edition, London: […] [John Macock] for H[enry] Herringman […], stanza 10, page 68
noun
countable and uncountable, plural outgos or outgoes
(countable, business, archaic except India) A cost, expenditure, or outlay.
Quotations
The secret of success lies never in the amount of money, but in the relation of income to outgo; as if, after expense has been fixed at a certain point, then new and steady rills of income, though never so small, being added, wealth begins.
1860, R[alph] W[aldo] Emerson, “Essay III. Wealth.”, in The Conduct of Life, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor and Fields, page 101
[T]he word "income" means, as already shown, that which has come in, and not that which might have come in, but did not. If expenditure means what has been paid out, or outgoes, then income means what has come in, or receipts.
1912 July 12, Joseph Cross, District Judge, United States District Court for the District of New Jersey, “Mutual Benefit Life Ins. Co. v. Herold, Internal Revenue Collector”, in The Federal Reporter […] (National Reporter System, United States Series), permanent edition, volume 198, St. Paul, Minn.: West Publishing Co., published 1913, page 215
Net income ('profits') is the difference between income and outgo.
1918 June 3, Joseph McKenna, Associate Justice, Supreme Court of the United States (delivering the court’s opinion), quoting the Government’s submissions, “Lynch, Collector of Internal Revenue for the District of Minnesota, v. Turrish”, in Ernest Knaebel (reporter), United States Reports: Cases Adjudged in the Supreme Court at October Term, 1917 […], volume 247, New York, N.Y.: The Banks Law Publishing Co., page 227
Through this program of action we address ourselves to putting our own national house in order and making income balance outgo.
1933 March 4, Franklin D[elano] Roosevelt, “Franklin D. Roosevelt: Inaugural Address”, in Inaugural Addresses of the Presidents of the United States from George Washington 1789 to Richard Milhous Nixon 1969 (91st Congress, 1st Session, House Document; 91-142), Washington, D.C.: United States Government Printing Office, published 1969, page 237
Under a refinancing scheme, initiated by the Agricultural Refinance and Development Corporation (ARDC), banks which refinance the construction of godowns for FCI [Food Corporation of India] are to be refinanced up to 80% of their outgos.
1977 March 7–13, “Food”, in Chanchal Sarkar, editor, Data India, number 10, New Delhi: K. Bhupal for the Press Institute of India, page 154, column 1
Your revenues and your outgos, then, are not the same.
1983 October 5, E[arl] Thomas Coleman, “Statement of Gene L. Swackhamer, President, Farm Credit Banks of Baltimore”, in Rural Electrification and Telephone Revolving Fund Self-sufficiency Act of 1983: Hearings before the Subcommittee on Conservation, Credit, and Rural Development of the Committee on Agriculture, House of Representatives, Ninety-eighth Congress, First Session, on H.R. 3050 […] (Serial No. 98-37), Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, published 1984, page 271
(uncountable) The act or process of going out; (countable) an instance of this; an outgoing.
Quotations
Once again, after establishing an equally obvious fact, I succeeded in wringing from her the reluctant admission, "It depends," but she was so shattered by the bulk and force of this outgo, so fearful that in some way she had imperiled her life or reputation, so anxious concerning the effect that her unwilling testimony might have upon unborn generations, that she was of no real service the rest of the day.
1898, Kate Douglas Wiggin, “Susanna Crum Couldna Say”, in Penelope’s Progress […], Boston, Mass., New York, N.Y.: Houghton, Mifflin and Company […], part 1st (In Town), page 35
The stately Votaress, with her towering funnels lost in the upper night, was running well inshore under a point, wrapped in a world-wide silence broken only by the placid outgo of her own vast breath, the soft rush of her torrential footsteps far below, and the answering rustle of the nearer shore.
1914, George W[ashington] Cable, “Questions”, in Gideon’s Band: A Tale of the Mississippi, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, page 37
I suppose you have been getting a lot of deliveries and no outgoes. Is that about the size of it?
1946 February 12, John Taber, “Statement of Rear Adm. W. J. Carter, Chief of Bureau, Bureau of Supplies and Accounts, Accompanied by Capt. J. M. Bregar, Commander S. M. Trott, and E. Midkiff, Bureau of Supplies and Accounts”, in Robert P[ercy] Williams, editor, Second Supplemental Surplus Appropriation Rescission Bill, 1946: Hearings before the Subcommittee of the Committee on Appropriations, House of Representatives, Seventy-ninth Congress, Second Session, on the Second Supplemental Surplus Appropriation Rescission Bill, 1946 […], Washington, D.C.: United States Government Printing Office, page 526
Thus the industry in Massachusetts subsists on a constant influx of cloth and outgo of garments which pass through the hands of the stitching contractors for an essential operation.
1949 March 28, Robert H[oughwout] Jackson, Associate Justice, Supreme Court of the United States (delivering the court’s opinion), “United States v. Women’s Sportswear Manufacturers Association et al.”, in Walter Wyatt (reporter), United States Reports: Cases Adjudged in the Supreme Court at October Term, 1948 […], volume 336, Washington, D.C.: United States Government Printing Office, page 462
The resulting output signal served as the reference that the measured heat inputs and outgos attempted to match.
1976 September, David Namkoong, “Description of System”, in Tests of a Reduced-scale Experimental Model of a Building Solar Heating–Cooling System (NASA Technical Memorandum; X-3416), Washington, D.C.: National Aeronautics and Space Administration, page 4
In the case of those nutrient elements, such as N and S, which occur predominantly in organic combination, measurement of the balance between atmospheric inputs and drainage outgoes may indicate may indicate the degree of control or relative leakiness of the ecosystem, provided due allowance is made for short-term fluctuations that could be meaningless.
1983, J. L. Charley, B. N. Richards, “Nutrient Allocation in Plant Communities: Mineral Cycling in Terrestrial Ecosystems”, in O. L. Lange, P. S. Nobel, C. B. Osmond, H. Ziegler, editors, Physiological Plant Ecology IV: Ecosystem Processes: Mineral Cycling, Productivity and Man’s Influence (Encyclopedia of Plant Physiology, New Series; 12D), Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag, page 38
(archaic or obsolete)
(countable) The means by which something flows or goes out; an outlet.
Quotations
The great Salt Lake of Utah is its principal body of water, and this has no visible outgo, though richly fed from various quarters.
1869, Samuel Bowles, “Introductory Chapter”, in Our New West. Records of Travel between the Mississippi River and the Pacific Ocean. […], Hartford, Conn.: Hartford Publishing Co. […], page 26
Of course the fact is not overlooked that the outgos of main drain traps are not usually ventilated against syphonage, but they afford an excellent example of a trap on a nearly horizontal pipe.
1882 February 2, D. [pseudonym], “Syphonage in Practice”, in The Sanitary Engineer, volume 5, number 10, New York, N.Y.: […] E. P. Coby & Co., page 208, columns 2–3
(uncountable, rare) A (quantity of a) substance or thing that has flowed out; an outflow.
Quotations
It cannot be doubted that the same persons are here meant as are spoken of in the preceding chapter, for their scorn was the outgo of the same frivolous mind which is there said to distinguish them.
1870, Friedrich Bleek, “The Petrine Epistles”, in William Urwick, transl., edited by Johannes Friedrich Bleek, An Introduction to the New Testament. […] (Clark’s Foreign Theological Library, Fourth Series; XXVI), volume II, Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, […], § 217 (The Second Petrine Epistle), page 175
In these experiments it is necessary to take account not only of the food eaten, but of the actual amount of this food which is used by the body. […] Estimates of the solids, liquids, and gases given off from his body must be obtained, for to carry out the experiment an exact balance must be made between the income and the outgo.
1899, H[erbert] W[illiam] Conn, “Is the Body a Machine?”, in The Story of the Living Machine: A Review of the Conclusions of Modern Biology in Regard to the Mechanism which Controls the Phenomena of Living Activity, New York, N.Y.: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, part I (The Running of the Living Machine), pages 23–24