walk out

present singular third person walks out · participle present walking out · participle past walked out · past walked out

1. intransitivelabourTo stage a walkout or strike.

   Postal workers are set to walk out tomorrow if contract negotiations fail.

   1 more example

   While the RMT and ScotRail bash heads over the pay freeze, RMT guards based at Glasgow Central are already walking out, with strikes planned [...] in a dispute over "abuse of disciplinary procedures".

   2020 December 2, Philip Haigh, “A winter of discontent caused by threat of union action”, in Rail, page 62

   Synonyms: strike, go on strike, walk off the job, walk

2. intransitiveTo leave suddenly, especially as a form of protest.
3. datedintransitiveTo go out with; to be romantically involved.

   The maidservant has been walking out with the butcher’s man.

   2 more examples

   Well, her an' your boy Al, they're a-walkin' out ever' night. An' Aggie’s a good healthy girl that oughta have a husban', else she might git in trouble.

   1939 April 14, John Steinbeck, chapter 28, in The Grapes of Wrath, New York, N.Y.: The Viking Press, →OCLC, page 438

   And Maud, surely seventeen by now. Did she have a boy to walk out with?

   2005, Sebastian Barry, A Long Long Way, New York: Viking, Part 3, Chapter 19, page 244

   Synonyms: date, go out, see

4. intransitiveobsoleteTo go for a walk outdoors; to go out.

   1751, Samuel Johnson, The Rambler, No. 118, 4 May, 1751, Volume 4, London: J. Payne and J. Bouquet, 1752, p. 161, The Turks are said to hear with wonder a proposal to walk out, only that they may walk back; and enquire, why any man should labour for nothing:

   5 more examples

   [The Umbrella] kept off the Sun so effectually, that I could walk out in the hottest of the Weather with greater Advantage than I could before in the coolest, and when I had no need of it, cou’d close it and carry it under my Arm.

   1719 May 6 (Gregorian calendar), [Daniel Defoe], The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, […], London: […] W[illiam] Taylor […], →OCLC, page 160

   The gentlemen arrived early; and, before Mrs. Bennet had time to tell him of their having seen his aunt [...], Bingley, who wanted to be alone with Jane, proposed their all walking out. It was agreed to.

   1813 January 27, [Jane Austen], chapter XVI, in Pride and Prejudice: […], volume III, London: […] [George Sidney] for T[homas] Egerton, […], →OCLC, page 270

   “Do you walk out this morning, my dear?” / “Yes, I shall go to the Rectory, and seek and find Caroline Helstone, and make her take some exercise: she shall have a breezy walk over Nunnely Common.”

   1849, Currer Bell [pseudonym; Charlotte Brontë], “Shirley and Caroline”, in Shirley. A Tale. […], volume II, London: Smith, Elder and Co., […], →OCLC, pages 3–4

   The day was damp, and they were not going to walk out, so they both went up to their sitting-room;

   1871, George Eliot [pseudonym; Mary Ann Evans], chapter V, in Middlemarch […], volume I, Edinburgh; London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC, book I, page 76

   [A]long the edge of Regent's Park there were as many silent couples "walking out" together under the scattered gas-lamps as ever there had been.

   1898, H.G. Wells, The War of the Worlds, London: William Heinemann, page 130

5. transitiveTo accompany (someone) as they leave a house or other building.

   Synonyms: see out

6. transitiveTo continue or persist in carrying (something) out or following through (with something); to persevere.

   Too many of us want to believe God for a miracle rather than trust him to bring us through. For some situations, healing takes time, and we have just got to walk it out.

   2013, Linda Mobley, Sold Out: My Journey to a More Intimate Relationship with God

7. transitivehobbiesTo step away with when carrying the weight in order not to hit the rack it was lifted off from during execution of the exercise.

   Antonyms: walk in