outgo
nounUK /ˈaʊtɡəʊ/ · US /ˈaʊtˌɡoʊ/
Etymology
PIE word *úd The verb is derived from Middle English outgon (“to go out, depart, leave; to come out, emerge; to escape; to protrude; of a sword: to be drawn; to emanate from (a place); to accompany”), from Old English ūtgān (“to go out”), Proto-West Germanic *ūtgān (“to go out”), equivalent to out- + go. See also go out. Compare Middle English outwenden (“to go out, depart, leave; to escape; to be emitted, fly out from; of a weapon: to be drawn”), which, like modern outgo, had the past tense and past participle form outwent. The noun is derived from modern English out- (prefix meaning ‘away from; toward the outside of’) + go. Sense 1 (“cost, expenditure, or outlay”) was probably modelled on income. Cognates * Scots outgae * West Frisian útgean * Dutch uitgaan * German Low German utgahn * German ausgehen * Swedish utgå
1
Business A cost, expenditure, or outlay.
Archaic except India
- My farm outgoes for the first season were, for implements, seed, work, &c., $14 72½.1854 August 9, Henry D[avid] Thoreau, “Economy”, in Walden; or, Life in the Woods, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor and Fields, →OCLC, page 60:
- The secret of success lies never in the amount of money, but in the relation of income to outgo; as if, after expense has been fixed at a certain point, then new and steady rills of income, though never so small, being added, wealth begins.1860, R[alph] W[aldo] Emerson, “Essay III. Wealth.”, in The Conduct of Life, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor and Fields, →OCLC, page 101:
4 more examples
- [T]he word "income" means, as already shown, that which has come in, and not that which might have come in, but did not. If expenditure means what has been paid out, or outgoes, then income means what has come in, or receipts.1912 July 12, Joseph Cross, District Judge, United States District Court for the District of New Jersey, “Mutual Benefit Life Ins. Co. v. Herold, Internal Revenue Collector”, in The Federal Reporter […] (National Reporter System, United States Series), permanent edition, volume 198, St. Paul, Minn.: West Publishing Co., published 1913, →OCLC, page 215:
- Net income ('profits') is the difference between income and outgo.1918 June 3, Joseph McKenna, Associate Justice, Supreme Court of the United States (delivering the court’s opinion), quoting the Government’s submissions, “Lynch, Collector of Internal Revenue for the District of Minnesota, v. Turrish”, in Ernest Knaebel (reporter), United States Reports: Cases Adjudged in the Supreme Court at October Term, 1917 […], volume 247, New York, N.Y.: The Banks Law Publishing Co., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 227:
- Through this program of action we address ourselves to putting our own national house in order and making income balance outgo.1933 March 4, Franklin D[elano] Roosevelt, “Franklin D. Roosevelt: Inaugural Address”, in Inaugural Addresses of the Presidents of the United States from George Washington 1789 to Richard Milhous Nixon 1969 (91st Congress, 1st Session, House Document; 91-142), Washington, D.C.: United States Government Printing Office, published 1969, →OCLC, page 237:
- Under a refinancing scheme, initiated by the Agricultural Refinance and Development Corporation (ARDC), banks which refinance the construction of godowns for FCI [Food Corporation of India] are to be refinanced up to 80% of their outgos.1977 March 7–13, “Food”, in Chanchal Sarkar, editor, Data India, number 10, New Delhi: K. Bhupal for the Press Institute of India, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 154, column 1:
2
The act or process of going out; (countable) an instance of this; an outgoing.
- Once again, after establishing an equally obvious fact, I succeeded in wringing from her the reluctant admission, "It depends," but she was so shattered by the bulk and force of this outgo, so fearful that in some way she had imperiled her life or reputation, so anxious concerning the effect that her unwilling testimony might have upon unborn generations, that she was of no real service the rest of the day.1898, Kate Douglas Wiggin, “Susanna Crum Couldna Say”, in Penelope’s Progress […], Boston, Mass.; New York, N.Y.: Houghton, Mifflin and Company […], →OCLC, part 1st (In Town), page 35:
- The stately Votaress, with her towering funnels lost in the upper night, was running well inshore under a point, wrapped in a world-wide silence broken only by the placid outgo of her own vast breath, the soft rush of her torrential footsteps far below, and the answering rustle of the nearer shore.1914, George W[ashington] Cable, “Questions”, in Gideon’s Band: A Tale of the Mississippi, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, →OCLC, page 37:
4 more examples
- I suppose you have been getting a lot of deliveries and no outgoes. Is that about the size of it?1946 February 12, John Taber, “Statement of Rear Adm. W. J. Carter, Chief of Bureau, Bureau of Supplies and Accounts, Accompanied by Capt. J. M. Bregar, Commander S. M. Trott, and E. Midkiff, Bureau of Supplies and Accounts”, in Robert P[ercy] Williams, editor, Second Supplemental Surplus Appropriation Rescission Bill, 1946: Hearings before the Subcommittee of the Committee on Appropriations, House of Representatives, Seventy-ninth Congress, Second Session, on the Second Supplemental Surplus Appropriation Rescission Bill, 1946 […], Washington, D.C.: United States Government Printing Office, →OCLC, page 526:
- Thus the industry in Massachusetts subsists on a constant influx of cloth and outgo of garments which pass through the hands of the stitching contractors for an essential operation.1949 March 28, Robert H[oughwout] Jackson, Associate Justice, Supreme Court of the United States (delivering the court’s opinion), “United States v. Women’s Sportswear Manufacturers Association et al.”, in Walter Wyatt (reporter), United States Reports: Cases Adjudged in the Supreme Court at October Term, 1948 […], volume 336, Washington, D.C.: United States Government Printing Office, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 462:
- The resulting output signal served as the reference that the measured heat inputs and outgos attempted to match.1976 September, David Namkoong, “Description of System”, in Tests of a Reduced-scale Experimental Model of a Building Solar Heating–Cooling System (NASA Technical Memorandum; X-3416), Washington, D.C.: National Aeronautics and Space Administration, →OCLC, page 4:
- In the case of those nutrient elements, such as N and S, which occur predominantly in organic combination, measurement of the balance between atmospheric inputs and drainage outgoes may indicate may indicate the degree of control or relative leakiness of the ecosystem, provided due allowance is made for short-term fluctuations that could be meaningless.1983, J. L. Charley, B. N. Richards, “Nutrient Allocation in Plant Communities: Mineral Cycling in Terrestrial Ecosystems”, in O. L. Lange, P. S. Nobel, C. B. Osmond, H. Ziegler, editors, Physiological Plant Ecology IV: Ecosystem Processes: Mineral Cycling, Productivity and Man’s Influence (Encyclopedia of Plant Physiology, New Series; 12D), Berlin; Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag, →DOI, →ISBN, page 38:
- The great Salt Lake of Utah is its principal body of water, and this has no visible outgo, though richly fed from various quarters.1869, Samuel Bowles, “Introductory Chapter”, in Our New West. Records of Travel between the Mississippi River and the Pacific Ocean. […], Hartford, Conn.: Hartford Publishing Co. […], →OCLC, page 26:
- Of course the fact is not overlooked that the outgos of main drain traps are not usually ventilated against syphonage, but they afford an excellent example of a trap on a nearly horizontal pipe.1882 February 2, D. [pseudonym], “Syphonage in Practice”, in The Sanitary Engineer, volume 5, number 10, New York, N.Y.: […] E. P. Coby & Co., →OCLC, page 208, columns 2–3:
- It cannot be doubted that the same persons are here meant as are spoken of in the preceding chapter, for their scorn was the outgo of the same frivolous mind which is there said to distinguish them.1870, Friedrich Bleek, “The Petrine Epistles”, in William Urwick, transl., edited by Johannes Friedrich Bleek, An Introduction to the New Testament. […] (Clark’s Foreign Theological Library, Fourth Series; XXVI), volume II, Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, […], →OCLC, § 217 (The Second Petrine Epistle), page 175:
- In these experiments it is necessary to take account not only of the food eaten, but of the actual amount of this food which is used by the body. […] Estimates of the solids, liquids, and gases given off from his body must be obtained, for to carry out the experiment an exact balance must be made between the income and the outgo.1899, H[erbert] W[illiam] Conn, “Is the Body a Machine?”, in The Story of the Living Machine: A Review of the Conclusions of Modern Biology in Regard to the Mechanism which Controls the Phenomena of Living Activity, New York, N.Y.: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC, part I (The Running of the Living Machine), pages 23–24:
1 more example
- And the arms of the scale of intake and outgo must likewise remain at level, and they do so maintain balance in health.1912, Linda Burfield Hazzard, “When and Why to Fast”, in Fasting for the Cure of Disease, 4th edition, New York, N.Y.: The Physical Culture Publishing Company, →OCLC, page 37:
- Related terms
- outgoing