Etymology From Middle English outward, from Old English ūtweard, equivalent to out + -ward.
1
Outer; located towards the outside.
2
Visible, noticeable.
By all outward indications, he's a normal happy child, but if you talk to him, you will soon realize he has some psychological problems.
Noble and milde this Perſean ſeemes to be, If outward habit Iudge the inward man.c. 1587–1588 (date written), [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire; London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act I, scene ii:
3
Tending to the exterior or outside.
The fire will force its outward way.1700, [John] Dryden, “Sigismond and Guiscardo”, in Fables Ancient and Modern; […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC:
an outward wara. 1628 (date written), John Hayward, The Life, and Raigne of King Edward the Sixt, London: […] [Eliot’s Court Press, and J. Lichfield at Oxford?] for Iohn Partridge, […], published 1630, →OCLC:
Etymology From Middle English outward, from Old English ūtweard, equivalent to out + -ward.
1
Towards the outside; away from the centre.
We are outward bound.
The wrong side may be turned outward.c. 1601–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Twelfe Night, or What You Will”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene i]:
2
Obsolete Outwardly, in outer appearances; publicly.
ANd thenne the quene lete make a preuy dyner in london vnto the knyȝtes of the round table / and al was for to shewe outward that she had as grete Ioye in al other knyghtes of the table round as she had in sir launcelot / al only at that dyner she had sir Gawayne and his bretheren1485, Sir Thomas Malory, “iij”, in Le Morte Darthur, book XVIII:
Ne any armour could his dint out-ward; / But wheresoever it did light, it throughly shard.1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book V, Canto I”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:
outward
noun
1
A ward in a detached building connected with a hospital.