Phrasal Verbs with out 2

When you finish your stay in a hotel, you have to 'check out' at reception and pay your final bill.

• I need to check out of my hotel room by 11.

• You check us out whilst I order a taxi for the airport.

If you 'lock yourself out', you close a door without having the key to get back in.

• Richard managed to lock himself out of his hotel room stark naked.

• I've left the keys in the car and locked myself out.

If you 'pick something out', you choose it, often with some care.

• Harry has picked out all the cashew nuts and left only the peanuts for me.

• From the thirty candidates, we've picked out seven to interview.

If you 'reach out' for something, you extend your arm to get it (sometimes metaphorically.)

• Drivers have to reach out a long way to insert the ticket in the machine.

• Our present customers are almost all over fifty. We need to reach out to a younger public.

If you 'rush out', you leave or send out very quickly.

• I wanted to speak to Jane but she rushed out as soon as the meeting was over.

• We rushed out the new catalogue and it is full of spelling errors.

If you 'throw something out', you get rid of it.

• We need to throw out the terrible printers we have and buy some new ones.

• You shouldn't throw out the baby with the bathwater.

If you warn somebody to 'look out', it means that there is danger.

• Look out! The boss is on the warpath.

• Look out! There's a radar camera just up ahead.

If you 'send something out' you send it to a lot of people (for example, to a mailing list.)

• I'll be sending out the newsletter early next week.

• Have you sent out the invitations yet?

If someone or something 'stands out', it is very noticeable or is better than similar people or things.

• One candidate stands out from the rest.

• He likes to stand out from the crowd.

If you 'pour out' your (usually sad) feelings or your thoughts, you talk about them very honestly and without holding anything back.

• He poured his heart out to me about his recent divorce.

• Don't hold back. Let it all pour out. It will do you good.

Phrasal Verbs with out 3

If you are 'tired out' you are very tired.

• All this work is beginning to tire me out. I need a break.

• The long journey has tired me out.

If you 'back out' of something, you decide not to do something that you had previously agreed to do.

• John was going to make the presentation but he backed out at the last minute.

• You've signed the contract so you can't back out now.

If you 'sort something out', you solve any problems or difficulties.

• I had to sort out a problem with our delivery times.

• We're meeting on Monday to sort out the details of the new contract.

If you 'pull out' of negotiations or an agreement, you stop being involved in it.

• They have pulled out of the deal because they didn't like our payment terms.

• The unions have pulled out of the negotiations and are now threatening strike action.

If you 'rule out' something or someone, you decide that it is not suitable or is impossible. 

• I think we can rule him out for the job as he doesn't speak Italian well enough.

• We haven't ruled out the possibility of appointing a local agent.

If you 'find something out', you get new information that you want to have or you learn a fact or information for the first time.

• I only found out about this earlier today.

• We need to find out a lot more before we can give a definitive answer.

If you 'wash out' your clothes, you clean them, often by hand. If you have a stain in your clothes, you can try to 'wash out' the stain.

• I usually wash out my clothes in the sink when I am staying in a hotel.

• Red wine is really hard to wash out.

If a sports competition cannot continue because of rain, it has been 'washed out'.

• The tennis at Wimbledon was washed out for the day.

• There so much rain that it might wash out the game.

In US informal English, if you 'wash out', you fail to finish something or to achieve the necessary standard.

• He was a big football star in college but he washed out in the NFL.

• The training course is tough but I'm not going to wash out.

If you 'spread something out', you move things apart so that there is plenty of space or time between them. 

• I'll spread these photos out on the table so that you can all see them.

• You can spread the payments out over several months.