▪ I. outstrip, v.1
(aʊtˈstrɪp)
[f. out- 18, 18 c, 17 + strip v.2, to run or advance swiftly, to speed, scud, ‘whip’.]
1. trans. To pass in running or any kind of swift motion; to outrun, leave behind in a race; to escape from by running. Also fig. with direct imagery of a race.
| 1580 Lyly Euphues (Arb.) 419 When I runne as Hippomanes did with Atlanta, who was last in the course, but first at the crowne: So that I gesse that woemen are eyther easie to be out stripped [ed. 1582 tripped], or willing. 1594 Shakes. Rich. III, iv. i. 42 Thy Mothers Name is ominous to Children, If thou wilt out-strip Death, goe crosse the Seas, And liue with Richmond. 1603 Dekker Grissil (Shaks. Soc.) 4 The deer Outstrips the active hound. 1748 Anson's Voy. iii. iii. 328 Mr. Gordon..being fresh and in breath, easily outstripped the..man, and got before him to the Commodore. 1860 Tyndall Glac. ii. xxvii. 382 If a plastic substance..flow down a sloping Canal, the lateral portions..will be outstripped by the Central ones. |
2. transf. and fig. To excel, surpass, get ahead of, or leave behind, in any kind of competition, or in any respect in which things may be compared.
| 1592 Nashe P. Penilesse D ij b, He so far outstript him in vilanious words..that the name of sport could not perswade him patience. 1607 Norden Surv. Dial. i. 9 They striue one to outstrip another in giuing most. 1665 Bunyan Holy Citie (1669) 91 They out-stript all the Prophets that ever went before them. a 1797 H. Walpole Mem. Geo. II (1847) II. ix. 301 Fox, not to be outstripped in homage to Argyle, justified the measure. 1834 Pringle Afr. Sk. xi. 342 Promising ere long to rival, if not to outstrip the present capital. |
† b. To exceed as a quality. Obs.
| 1610 B. Jonson Alch. v. Epil., If I have outstript An old man's gravity, or strict canon, think What a young wife and a good brain may do. 1632 Lithgow Trav. iii. 123 The Riuer Simois: whose breadth all the way hath not outstripd the fields aboue two miles. |
† 3. To pass beyond, leave behind (a place). Obs.
| 1632 Lithgow Trav. viii. 345 Scarcely had we out-stripd Rhyneberg..a Dutch mile. |
▪ II. outstrip, v.2
(aʊtˈstrɪp)
[f. out- 18 + strip v.1]
trans. To surpass in stripping; to wear less clothing than. (With punning reference to outstrip v.1)
| 1887 Daily News 29 Dec. 5/3 ‘Yes,’ replied his cynical friend, after a glance at the young lady, ‘I admit that she out-strips them all.’ 1897 W. C. Hazlitt Four Generations Lit. Family II. 155 The abridged petticoats of the ladies proceeded to an intolerable pitch; and many tried, as Byron said, to outstrip one another. 1938 H. M. Alexander Strip Tease 19 ‘Then it was competition that was responsible for the peeling.’ ‘Yeah.’ Garns laughs. ‘They tried to outstrip each other.’ |