Dictionary.com

Popular Searches

 Thesaurus.com
Synonyms

at the outset

Idioms  

  1. Also, from the outset. At the start, from the start. For example, He wanted to explain his position from the outset, but there wasn't time, or At the outset the problem seemed simple, but then it became quite complicated. The noun outset is rarely heard today except in these phrases. [Mid-1700s]

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Often we decide at the outset, I’m humanitarian or I’m a conservative Christian, and we accept our group’s handbook, assuming that each opinion has been vetted by experts and that we’ll be generally right most of the time.

From The Wall Street Journal

A good idea, because Trotsky had been sentenced to death in 1936, at the outset of the Great Terror.

From The Wall Street Journal

McMillan revealed their personality traits had been among the "insights" studied at the outset of putting the rink together.

From BBC

Partly as a result of the moral quandaries, Mr. Solomon finishes his book far more ambivalent about colonizing Mars than he was at the outset.

From The Wall Street Journal

Instead, Maxwell will read "a prepared statement at the outset of the deposition", Democratic Representative Ro Khanna said.

From BBC

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.