outer

comparative rare outermore · superlative outermost · superlative outmost

1. Outside; external.
2. Farther from the centre of the inside.

   1 more example

   Nanny Broome was looking up at the outer wall. Just under the ceiling there were three lunette windows, heavily barred and blacked out in the normal way by centuries of grime. Their bases were on a level with the pavement outside, a narrow way which was several feet lower than the road behind the house.

   1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 14, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC

plural outers

1. An outer part.

   'Phil Cornish' [a snowdrop variety] is like a cross between a pixie hat and a pagoda, with elegant upswept outers [outer petals] marked in a green colour-wash at the top and warpaint slashes at the lower end.

   2015 February 7, Val Bourne, “The quiet man of the world of snowdrops”, in The Daily Telegraph (London), page G8

2. hobbiesAn uncovered section of the seating at a stadium or sportsground.
3. engineeringThe fourth circle on a target, outside the inner and magpie.
4. A shot which strikes the outer of a target.
5. businessThe smallest single unit sold by wholesalers to retailers, usually one retail display box.

   We ordered two cartons with twelve outers in each.

plural outers

1. Someone who admits to something publicly.
2. Someone who outs another.

   From the early 90s, these were some of the fiercest debates raging in the gay press and in gay and straight bars worldwide as blabbermouths blabbed, sometimes just for the sheer hell of it, and gay celebrities ran for cover or bit the bullet and pipped the outers to the post.

   2002, Simon Gage, Lisa Richards, Howard Wilmot, Queer: The Ultimate User's Guide, page 88

3. One who puts out, ousts, or expels.
4. An ouster; dispossession.
5. UKgovernmentOne who supports leaving the European Union.

   The 51.4 per cent to 48.6 per cent victory of the "outers" broke the back of the Labour government.

   2013 January 25, Jon Cruddas, “Au Revoir, Europe: What If Britain Left the EU? by David Charter”, in The Independent

   1 more example

   Meanwhile, outers are disporting themselves on TV in luminous green ties, hand-woven by first years at the Dronefield Academy for the Sartorially Challenged.

   2016 February 16, Robert Shrimsley, “Gimme a Brexit break”, in Financial Times

   Synonyms: Brexiter

1. comparativecomparative form of out (“(more) open about one's sexuality, etc”): more out

   […] outer-than-out literary lions like Edmund White and David Ehrenstein would later note, this final proof that the[…]

   2016 July 14, Telly Davidson, Culture War: How the '90s Made Us Who We Are Today (Whether We Like It or Not), McFarland, →ISBN, page 90

   2 more examples

   And 'I like to wear a silly hat; I get camper by the hour. I'm Will Young and I'm gay. Did you know I was gay? I hid it for a while. But now I'm out, I'm outer than you would believe'.[…]

   2020 September 3, Will Young, To be a Gay Man, Random House, →ISBN

   John rightly deplores any sign of an "outer-than-thou❞ smugness in my occasionally critical attitude to his decision not to disclose his sexual identity to his parents. […] Outness, I've come to realize, is not an absolute state of public exposure or an immutable[…]

   1996, Marion Lynn, Voices: Essays on Canadian Families, →ISBN, page 149