stand out, n. (and adj.) phr.
Now usu. standout or with hyphen.
[f. vbl. phr. stand out: see stand v. 99.]
1. [After lock-out.] A workmen's strike.
| 1898 Westm. Gaz. 12 Jan. 2/2 They are all protected by a strike clause, which says that a ‘strike or stand out’ by their workmen may be a sufficient excuse for non-completion of their contract. 1901 R. Murray Hist. Hawick I. 95 Hawick had hitherto been free from strikes, or ‘stands oot’, as they were called. |
2. a. One who stands out from the crowd; an outstanding or conspicuous person or thing. N. Amer. colloq.
| 1928 Collier's 29 Dec. 26/2 When the show opened, this girl had improved in her dancing so amazingly that she was a distinct ‘standout’. 1936 Sun (Baltimore) 13 July 4/1 The smash-ups are staged realistically, the standout being that in which an apparently new..car hurtles over a parapet and arcs one hundred feet or so through the air. 1938 D. Baker Young Man with Horn iii. ii. 145 He was blessed above the run of band leaders. It isn't given to all organizers to have a stand-out in their organizations. 1944 Sat. Rev. Lit. (U.S.) 8 Jan. 14/3 John Hersey's novel about the AMG in Italy, ‘A Bell for Adano’, is likely to be one of the action stand-outs of the new season. 1958 Times 24 Nov. (Canad. Suppl.) p. xii/6, If they see a boy who is a standout,..they can't go wrong by putting him down as a good prospect. 1979 Time 8 Jan. 46/2 Another campus standout, Phyllis Wallace, now in her 50s, has been burdened by prejudice against blacks as well as women. |
b. attrib. phr. or as adj.
| 1932 Sun (Baltimore) 15 Aug. 9/1 California's rowing triumph and Japan's first swimming conquest were the stand-out performances. 1955 Keepnews & Grauer Pictorial Hist. Jazz xi. 117/2 Red Nichols and Miff Mole were the stand-out figures in this phase. 1978 J. Irving World according to Garp viii. 162 Robert Muldoon, a standout tight end for the Philadelphia Eagles. |