▪ I. outcast, n.1
(ˈaʊtkɑːst, -æ-)
[n. use of outcast ppl. a.]
1. A person ‘cast out’ or rejected; an abject; a castaway; one rejected or cast off by his friends or by society; an exile; a homeless vagabond.
| 13.. Evang. Nicod. 746 in Herrig Archiv LIII. 405 Þou out cast of all men, how dar þou negh þis temple nere. 1388 Wyclif Ps. lxxxiii[i]. 11, I chees to be an out cast [Vulg. abjectus] in the hous of my God. 1526 Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531) 117, I shall than be reputed as an outcast & nothynge set by. 1535 Coverdale Ps. xxi[i]. 6, I am a worme and no man: a very scorne of men and the outcast of the people. 1570 Levins Manip. 36/12 An outcast, abiectus. 1733 Pope Ep. Cobham 204 He dies, sad outcast of each church and state. 1832 H. Martineau Homes Abr. vi. 78 Being thus made outcasts, they acted as outcasts. 1849 Macaulay Hist. Eng. iii. I. 363 Quarters peopled by the outcasts of society. |
2. That which is thrown out or away, refuse, offal; a plant thrown out from a garden.
| 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xvii. cxxxv. (Bodl. MS.) lf. 224/2 Hulkes and offal and oute caste of corne. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 375/1 Owte caste, or refuse, or coralyce of corne,..cribalum. 1796 Withering Brit. Plants (ed. 3) II. 309 Found..in a situation that would allow of its being an out⁓cast of a garden. 1842 Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc. III. ii. 325 A nobleman..made a large pond in the solid clay, and burnt all the outcast. |
† 3. An inferior sheep culled from the rest of the flock. Obs.
| 1671 Inv. in Anderson Hist. Lea 25 (N.W. Lincolns. Gloss.) Fifty-two weathers and hogges, outcasts. |
† 4. A projectile. Obs.
| 1674 N. Fairfax Bulk & Selv. 120 The rist or spring of all that swiftness that is given to outcasts. Ibid. 129 When we give a dartingness to outcasts. |
† 5. A part thrown out or built out from the main body of a building. Obs.
| 1574 Nottingham Rec. IV. 157 For a chymney and ij. out castes or purprestures to his house. 1616 Surfl. & Markh. Country Farme 87 You shall make round about the Doue⁓house, on the outside, two out-casts of hewed stone, or round rings of plaister, as broad as three or four chesse of stones. |
▪ II. ˈoutcast, n.2
[out- 7.]
† 1. The act of casting out; expulsion. Obs.
| 1600 W. Watson Decacordon (1602) 46 [There is] no danger at all..to the Church..by their [the Jesuits'] outcast. |
2. The act of throwing out or from one.
| 1864 Gd. Words 599/2 At each out-cast, it [a net] opens at every mesh. |
3. A falling out, quarrel. (Cf. cast v. 81 f.) Sc.
| 1634 Tyninghame Sess. Records in A. L. Ritchie Ch. St. Baldred (1880) 238 Thair was ane outcast between George Shortus and George Foster. 1637 Rutherford Lett., to Jas. Murray 21 Nov. (1671) 321, I tremble at the remembrance of a new out-cast betwixt him and me. 1818 Scott Hrt. Midl. xlvii, Reuben never sleeps weel, nor I neither, when you and he hae had ony bit outcast. |
† 4. An outlet; a vent. Obs.
| 1601 Holland Pliny xxxi. iii. II. 409 On either side of such pits..certaine out-casts, tunnels, or venting holes, to receiue those hurtfull and dangerous vapours. |
▪ III. outcast, ppl. a.
(ˈaʊtkɑːst, -æ-)
[out- 11: see cast out, cast v. 81.]
1. Of persons: orig. Abject, socially despised; in later use, Cast out from home and friends; hence, forsaken, forlorn, homeless and neglected.
| c 1374 Chaucer Boeth. iii. pr. iv. 57 (Camb. MS.) So mochel the fowlere and the moore owt cast [abjectior] þat he is despised of most folk. c 1400 Rule St. Benet (E.E.T.S.) 76/1034 Mine awne condicions wil I ken, Reproue & oute kast of al women. c 1600 Shakes. Sonn. xxix, I all alone beweep my outcast state. 1795–7 Southey Juvenile & Minor Poems Poet. Wks. II. 72 Barbarous climes, Where angry England sends her outcast sons. 1828 S. R. Maitland Let. Rev. C. Simeon 20 In this state of out-cast misery he lived for more than four years. 1860 Froude Hist. Eng. V. 112 The highways and the villages were covered..with forlorn and outcast families, now reduced to beggary. 1888 Pall Mall G. 23 Oct. 1/2 The bitter cry of outcast London. |
2. Of things: Rejected, discarded.
| c 1560 R. Morice in Lett. Lit. Men (Camden) 25 Emongs the outecaste papers I haue founde one fragment of a Bull of Indulgences. 1605 Camden Rem. Ded. 2 The rude rubble and out-cast rubbish..of a greater and more serious worke. 1853 Kane Grinnell Exp. xvii. (1856) 129 To convert several outcast eatables to good palatable food. |
† 3. Thrown out as an extension from the main building. Obs.
| a 1645 Habington Surv. Worcs. in Worcs. Hist. Soc. Proc. i. 135 In the Churcheyarde On the Southe syde aboue an outcast chappell. |
▪ IV. outˈcast, v. Now rare.
[out- 15. (In ME. orig. two words: now poetic.)]
trans. To cast out: see cast v. 81. So outˈcast pa. pple.
| a 1300 E.E. Psalter lxxxiii[i]. 11, I ches out casten for to bin In þe hous of God is min. a 1325 Prose Psalter cviii[i]. 9 Ben hij outcusten of her woninges. c 1374 Chaucer Troylus v. 615 Here I dwelle out cast [v.r. cast out] from alle Ioye. a 1425 Cursor M. 18231 (Trin.) Outcast þou art of goddes aungele. 1483 Cath. Angl. 264/2 To Oute caste, abicere... Oute castyn, abiectus. c 1580 Howers Bless. Virg. 100 Thou..wilt, as I think, me utterly outcast. a 1662 Heylin Laud (1668) 156 It being the custom of all those whom the Court casts out, to labour by all means they can to out-cast the Court. 1741 E. Erskine Serm. Wks. 1871 III. 17 Their suspending, outcasting and deposing seven men from the holy ministry. 1855 Lynch Rivulet xxiv. ii, Fill us with the love, outcasting Murmur, fearfulness, and sleep. |