Library / English Dictionary

OUTGROW

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

Irregular inflected forms: outgrew    , outgrown   

 I. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Grow too large or too mature for

Example:

She outgrew her childish habits

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Hypernyms (to "outgrow" is one way to...):

develop; grow (grow emotionally or mature)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something

Sense 2

Meaning:

Grow faster than

Classified under:

Verbs of fighting, athletic activities

Hypernyms (to "outgrow" is one way to...):

exceed; outdo; outgo; outmatch; outperform; outstrip; surmount; surpass (be or do something to a greater degree)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s somebody
Something ----s something

Sentence example:

Sam cannot outgrow Sue

Credits

 Context examples: 

Had my mother given me some active profession when I was removed at eighteen from the care of Mr. Pratt, I think—nay, I am sure, it would never have happened; for though I left Longstaple with what I thought, at the time, a most unconquerable preference for his niece, yet had I then had any pursuit, any object to engage my time and keep me at a distance from her for a few months, I should very soon have outgrown the fancied attachment, especially by mixing more with the world, as in such case I must have done.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

The few hours that had passed since he saw the Abbey tower stretched out in his memory until they outgrew whole months of the stagnant life of the cloister.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

There's no need of sending home, Daisy, even if you had a dozen, for I've got a sweet blue silk laid away, which I've outgrown, and you shall wear it to please me, won't you, dear?

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

He had outgrown his mother.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

Monk-bred as he was, Alleyne had native shrewdness and a mind which was young enough to form new conclusions and to outgrow old ones.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Not one whole or handsome one among them, all were outcasts till Beth took them in, for when her sisters outgrew these idols, they passed to her because Amy would have nothing old or ugly.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

Close to the corner of the chimney sat a middle-aged gleeman, clad in a faded garb of Norwich cloth, the tunic of which was so outgrown that it did not fasten at the neck and at the waist.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Jo accepted it with a smile, for she had never outgrown her liking for lads, and soon found herself involved in the usual labyrinth of love, mystery, and murder, for the story belonged to that class of light literature in which the passions have a holiday, and when the author's invention fails, a grand catastrophe clears the stage of one half the dramatis personae, leaving the other half to exult over their downfall.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)