Find the word definition

Crossword clues for outset

Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
outset
noun
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADJECTIVE
clear
▪ Finally, it should be clear from the outset what sort of information the survey is designed to elicit.
▪ The chant was deafeningly clear from the outset.
▪ It was always part of the process whose importance was made clear at the outset.
very
▪ Many of those anomalies were identified by my colleagues at the very outset of the poll tax escapade.
▪ Those talks failed from the very outset.
▪ You must be clear in your mind from the very outset why you are reading.
■ VERB
establish
▪ This establishes at the outset for both parties the criterion for evaluation of work done.
▪ It should be established at the outset that many large blue-chip companies do not actually use search at all.
▪ A structure to the assignment should be established from the outset.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ But at the outset there is always great harm.
▪ Fourthly, from the outset it is important to be sure that there is agreement with the patient about what is planned.
▪ Hennepin and La Salle, whose subsequent westward expedition he was to join, struck sparks off one another from the outset.
▪ I was fairly ignorant of Third World literature at the outset and in many respects still am.
▪ Prosecutors suspected from the outset that Stoner had fled the country.
▪ Recognising sharp practice in their dealers from the outset, they would be less likely to blame them for huge losses.
▪ Stanford used some physical play inside and the playmaking of point guard Brevin Knight to take the lead from the outset.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Outset

Outset \Out"set`\, n. A setting out, starting, or beginning. ``The outset of a political journey.''
--Burke.

Giving a proper direction to this outset of life.
--J. Hawes.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
outset

"act of setting out on a journey, business, etc." 1759, from out + set (v.). The earlier word for this was outsetting (1670s).

Wiktionary
outset

n. the beginning or initial stage of something

WordNet
outset

n. the time at which something is supposed to begin; "they got an early start"; "she knew from the get-go that he was the man for her" [syn: beginning, commencement, first, get-go, start, kickoff, starting time, showtime, offset] [ant: middle, end]

Usage examples of "outset".

Prussian autocracy was not and could never be our friend, is that from the very outset of the present war it has filled our unsuspecting communities and even our offices of Government with spies and set criminal intrigues everywhere afoot against our national unity and counsel, our peace within and without our industries and our commerce.

Like the others, this appeared to be mortarless stonework, the higher floors slightly outset from the lower.

Still, there was no denying that Engelbart was quirky and from the outset was a handful.

At the very outset, indeed, the moralizing philosophy which has characterized the English from the beginning of our national history, appears in the writers of the troubled times lying between the last regnal years of Henry VIII and the first of his great daughter.

Philadelphian named George Scithers, had got the magazine off to a fast start, with Asimov himself as a benign guiding presence in the background, and it grew so quickly in popularity that its publishing frequency increased from quarterly at the outset to bi-monthly in 1978 and monthly a year later.

MBL has grown slowly but steadily from the outset, sprouting new buildings from time to time, taking on new functions, expanding, drawing to itself by a sort of tropism greater numbers of biological scientists each summer, attracting students from all parts of the world.

We were well aware from the outset that the Wingate principals were unethical, venal idiots, yet we decided to proceed in spite of it.

Some of the things abandoned with unphilosophic ease at the outset proved under the test of experience to be essential.

Finally the untheatrical construction is entirely un-Gogolian, and in the deliberate discarding of all tricks and contrivances at scenic effect Ostrovsky from the outset attains his best.

II Altho it is possible to consider his stage-technic apart from his teaching, it needs to be noted at the outset that Ibsen the playwright owes a large portion of his power and effectiveness to Ibsen the poet-philosopher.

Develop the nexus region at the outset, then develop the Anchors in sectors until we have a working ecosystem in each.

Speaking of the strangeness at first sight, presented to the Anglican mind, of some of their principles and opinions, I bid the reader go forward hopefully, and not indulge his criticism till he knows more about them, than he will learn at the outset.

Their report was not without foundation, it was apar parent from the outset, for in our examination of the upper levels of the mine, our instruments indicated a vigorous radio activity.

There was concern at the outset about how we would find mothers willing to take part in a study that required them to come with their babies four times a week to be observed, especially since we made it clear we were not going to give them advice about child care.

It held sway, at the outset, over both banks, from range to range, northward as far as Deyrut, where the true Bahr Yusuf leaves the Nile, and southward to the neighbourhood of Gebel Sheikh Haridi.