max out

British

verb

informal to reach or cause to reach the full extent or allowance

the goal was to max out the customer's credit card

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

max out Idioms

Exhaust one's options, capacity, or the like by producing or performing to the maximum, as in The weight lifter maxed out at 180 kilograms . [ Slang ; late 1900s]
Reach a point at which no more growth, improvement, or benefit is possible, as in The salary for this job maxes out at $90,000 . [ Slang ; late 1900s]
Relax, take things easy, as in Let's go to the beach and max out . [ Slang ; late 1900s]

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.

While the 64-year-old believes Loudoun County will max out its land available for data centers in the coming years, he isn’t getting out of the game.

From The Wall Street Journal

I make good money, max out every year and want that tax deduction as I near retirement.

From MarketWatch

Howe had called on Wissa to "max out" before the game, and he led the press effectively against a naive PSV side, who repeatedly played out from the back.

From BBC

Traditional SAW devices typically max out at around 4 gigahertz, making the new system far faster.

From Science Daily

Data centers’ power demand is threatening to max out generation capacity in a 13-state region.

From The Wall Street Journal

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