Meanings
- Not operational; not functioning properly.
One pair of handcuffs will put both hands out of commission.
1909, Mary Roberts Rinehart, “At the Table Next”, in The Man in Lower Ten, New York, N.Y.: Grosset & Dunlap, →OCLC, page 2002 more examples
At the same time, the valves, pistons, motion and brakegear plus ancillary equipment is overhauled, putting the locomotive out of commission for about 26 to 30 days.
1962 June, “Diesel economy analysed—a postscript”, in Modern Railways, page 422A traffic light was out of commission, leaving motorists to sort their way through an occasionally busy intersection.
2008 July 2, Scot Lehigh, “Making (no) sense of police details”, in Boston GlobeSynonyms: broken, out of order, out of service
Synonyms & antonyms
prepositional phraseNot operational; not functioning properly.
Cite this entry
out of commission. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/out%20of%20commission
“out of commission.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/out%20of%20commission. Accessed November 5, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “out of commission,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/out%20of%20commission.
Source: out of commission on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.