Meanings
plural out-choruses
- jazzThe return to the main written melody following the chorus (improvised solo section) in a small group performance
[…] the treatment of Monk's classic blues from 1947, "Misterioso," includes a torrent of notes from Adderley's cornet in the opening solo chorus matched by a hot, intense solo by Johnson before the out chorus.
2001, Joshua Berrett, Louis G. Bourgois III, chapter 7, in The Musical World of J. J. Johnson, Lanham, MD: The Scarecrow Press, page 1891 more example
1991, Samuel A. Floyd, Jr., "Ring Shout! Literary Studies, Historical Studies, and Black Music Inquiry" in Gena Dagel Caponi (ed.), Signifyin(g), Sanctifyin’, & Slam Dunking: A Reader in African American Expressive Culture, Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1999, p. 149, https://books.google.ca/books?id=Nn6y4iHj6_MC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false I also hear the trombone's held-notes in the out-chorus (B⁷) as evocative "shouts" that Signify black religious shouting and its counterpart expression in secular life—calls, cries, and hollers […]
Synonyms: head-out
present singular third person out-choruses · present rare singular third person out-chorusses · participle present out-chorusing · participle present rare out-chorussing · participle past out-chorused · past out-chorused · participle past rare out-chorussed · past rare out-chorussed
- transitiveTo sing in chorus better, longer or louder than.
1 more example
1831, Thomas Thomson, "The London Drama, Regent's Park, London, Monday, Jan. 10th, 1831, in The Edinburgh Literary Journal; or, Weekly Register of Criticism and Belles Lettres, Edinburgh, p. 51, https://books.google.ca/books?id=uPsVAAAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false […] the audience right loyally insisted on having "God save the King," and far out-chorussed the professional singers on the stage.
Synonyms & antonyms
nounThe return to the main written melody following the chorus (improvised solo section) in a small group performance
Origin
Cite this entry
out-chorus. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/out-chorus
“out-chorus.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/out-chorus. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “out-chorus,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/out-chorus.
Source: out-chorus on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.