come out definition

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˌkʌm ˈaʊt/

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Verb

come out (third-person singular simple present comes out, present participle coming out, simple past came out, past participle come out)

1. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see come,‎ out.

   The mouse came out of the hole.

2. To be discovered, be revealed.

   It finally came out that he had been lying all the time.

3. To be published, be issued.

   My new book comes out next week.

4. (old-fashioned or historical) (as a debutante) To make a formal debut in society.
   • 1838 (date written), L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter VI, in Lady Anne Granard; or, Keeping up Appearances. […], volume I, London: Henry Colburn, […], published 1842, →OCLC, page 63:

     "You would not trouble it much, child," returned Lady Anne, pettishly; "you know you are the plain one of the family. I do not know what I shall do with you when you come out; you will have no beauty but that of youth."

5. (copulative) To end up or result.

   There were a lot of problems at the start, but it all came out well in the end.

6. (cricket, of a batsman) To walk onto the field at the beginning of an innings.
7. (idiomatic, informal) To come out of the closet.

   He came out to his parents as gay last week.

   • 2011, Allan Bérubé, My Desire for History: Essays in Gay, Community, and Labor History:

     I had not come out yet and he was out but wasn't; quite ungay, I would say, and yet gay.

   • 2020 March 5, Yi-Ling Liu, “How a Dating App Helped a Generation of Chinese Come Out of the Closet”, in The New York Times‎^[1], →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2020-03-06, Feature‎^[2]:

     Like many gay Chinese growing up at the turn of the millennium, Duan Shuai began his long, deliberate process of coming out online. After school, he would visit the newly opened internet cafe in his hometown, Xinzhou, a small city in Shanxi Province bounded by a veil of mountains. He would pick a desktop facing away from the wall so that nobody could look over his shoulder. Then he’d go to QQ, the new instant-messaging service and online forum, and type in the Chinese word for “homosexual” — tongzhi, or comrade.

   • August 24 2021, Shon Faye, “‘I feel like it’s quite shaky acceptance’: trans kids and the fight for inclusion”, in The Guardian:

     In March 2017, a 90-year-old second world war veteran called Patricia Davies came out as a transgender woman and began taking hormones, shortly after discussing her lifelong gender dysphoria with her doctor.

8. To be deducted from.

   That comes out of my paycheck.

9. To express one's opinion openly.

   You had come out in favor of the French Revolution.

10. (of the sun, moon or stars) To become visible in the sky as a result of clouds clearing away.

    It's quite warm now the sun's come out.

11. To protest or go on strike, especially out of solidarity with other workers.

    We got the folks at the Detroit plant to come out too.

    We're coming out for the campaign and for all the struggling people out there.

12. To make a debut in a new field.
    • Spirit-rapping made easy; or, how to come out as a medium.
    • 1999, “Shanghai”, in The Book of the World, 2nd United States edition (Atlas), Macmillan, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 411, column 1:

      By the year 2000, Shanghai is scheduled to become an international center of commerce and finance; economic strategists predict that by 2010 the city will have become the world's largest trading center. This "secret capital" of China has set some ambitious goals for itself. The population is proudly celebrating their collective "coming out," and business is booming.

Derived terms

• come out in the wash
• come out of one's shell
• come out of the broom closet
• come out of the closet
• come out with
• the handbags come out

Translations

Anagrams

• outcome