see out

present singular third person sees out · participle present seeing out · past saw out · participle past seen out

1. formaltransitiveTo accompany a guest to the door when he or she leaves (also used figuratively).

   Please see our guest out.

   1 more example

   I saw that boy into the world and I will see him out.

2. transitiveTo continue something until completion; to watch an activity develop to a conclusion.

   I'll never give up. I'm going to see this thing out.

   3 more examples

   Life. He's perished with it. / Is he very near the last? / At the backend of it, I'd say. With the prostate, the lungs, the liver. He's already half-ghost. / Can't we have another tomorrow? / This night will see him out. / God-God-God and God-God-God, please save him. […] The average stay was four to six years, when they died. When death arrived, they'd send for Burke and Hare.

   2012 March 1, Honor Molloy, Smarty Girl: Dublin Savage, Gemma, →ISBN, page 179

   The surviving units are now seeing out their final days on the Coastway route in Sussex, operated by Southern.

   2022 December 14, Kim Fullbrook, “Sunset draws near for long-serving '313s'”, in RAIL, number 972, page 36

   It turns out that, in journalistic terms, and especially at the FT, where many staff see out their entire careers, seven years is nothing.

   2023 November 25, Rebecca Rose, “How old is too old for a profile pic?”, in FT Weekend (Life & Arts section), London: The Financial Times Ltd., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 22

   Synonyms: see through