walk out
See also: walkout
English
Verb
- (intransitive) To stage a walkout or strike.
- Synonyms: strike, go on strike, walk off the job
- Postal workers are set to walk out tomorrow if contract negotiations fail.
- (intransitive) To leave suddenly, especially as a form of protest.
- (intransitive, dated) To go out with; to be romantically involved.
- 1939, John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath, New York: Viking, 1958, Chapter 28, p. 575,[1]
- “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. [...]”
- 2005, Sebastian Barry, A Long Long Way, New York: Viking, Part 3, Chapter 19, p. 244,[2]
- And Maud, surely seventeen by now. Did she have a boy to walk out with?
- 1939, John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath, New York: Viking, 1958, Chapter 28, p. 575,[1]
- (intransitive, obsolete) To go for a walk outdoors; to go out.
- 1719, Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe, London: W. Taylor, p. 160,[3]
- [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.
- 1751, Samuel Johnson, The Rambler, No. 118, 4 May, 1751, Volume 4, London: J. Payne and J. Bouquet, 1752, p. 161,[4]
- 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:
- 1813, Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, London: T. Egerton, Volume 3, Chapter 16, p. 270,[5]
- 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.
- 1849, Charlotte Brontë, Shirley, London: Smith, Elder, Volume 2, Chapter 1, pp. 3-4,[6]
- “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.”
- 1871, George Eliot, Middlemarch, Edinburgh: William Blackwood, Volume 1, Book 1, Chapter 5, p. 76,[7]
- The day was damp, and they were not going to walk out, so they both went up to their sitting-room;
- 1719, Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe, London: W. Taylor, p. 160,[3]
- (transitive) To accompany (someone) as they leave a house or other building.
- Synonym: see out