"on the outside, looking in" meaning in English

See on the outside, looking in in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Prepositional phrase

Audio: En-au-on the outside, looking in.ogg [Australia]
Head templates: {{head|en|prepositional phrase}} on the outside, looking in
  1. (idiomatic) Excluded from a group, process, or opportunity, and feeling downhearted as a result. Tags: idiomatic Synonyms: alienated, on the outside looking in Related terms: on the outs, want in
    Sense id: en-on_the_outside,_looking_in-en-prep_phrase-aDBBW6Lk Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header

Download JSON data for on the outside, looking in meaning in English (2.5kB)

{
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "prepositional phrase"
      },
      "expansion": "on the outside, looking in",
      "name": "head"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "prep_phrase",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1964, “I’m On the Outside (Looking In)”, performed by Little Anthony and the Imperials",
          "text": "Won't you take me back again? I'll be waiting here till then / On the outside looking in",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1988 August 24, Mervyn Rothstein, “Kirk Douglas And Anger”, in New York Times, retrieved 2015-08-02",
          "text": "\"In a sense, I've always felt on the outside, looking in,\" Mr. Douglas says. \"It's my background, damn it. My father was an illiterate Russian immigrant, a ragman, the lowest rung on the economic scale. There were six sisters and my mother; I was the only boy. To be a young Jewish boy in a town—Amsterdam, in upstate New York—that was quite anti-Semitic.\"",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1997 May 18, Marianne Macdonald, “Who is Paul Theroux?”, in Independent (UK), retrieved 2015-08-02",
          "text": "A recurrent theme of Theroux's books is this sense of being an alien, on the outside looking in.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2007 August 2, Ishaan Tharoor, “India's Democratic Advantage”, in Time, retrieved 2015-08-02",
          "text": "While China's economy soars, hundreds of millions of migrant workers and rural peasants have been left on the outside looking in.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Excluded from a group, process, or opportunity, and feeling downhearted as a result."
      ],
      "id": "en-on_the_outside,_looking_in-en-prep_phrase-aDBBW6Lk",
      "links": [
        [
          "Excluded",
          "excluded"
        ],
        [
          "downhearted",
          "downhearted"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) Excluded from a group, process, or opportunity, and feeling downhearted as a result."
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "word": "on the outs"
        },
        {
          "word": "want in"
        }
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "alienated"
        },
        {
          "word": "on the outside looking in"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "En-au-on the outside, looking in.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/f/f7/En-au-on_the_outside%2C_looking_in.ogg/En-au-on_the_outside%2C_looking_in.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f7/En-au-on_the_outside%2C_looking_in.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "word": "on the outside, looking in"
}
{
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "prepositional phrase"
      },
      "expansion": "on the outside, looking in",
      "name": "head"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "prep_phrase",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "on the outs"
    },
    {
      "word": "want in"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English idioms",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English prepositional phrases",
        "English terms with audio links",
        "English terms with quotations"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1964, “I’m On the Outside (Looking In)”, performed by Little Anthony and the Imperials",
          "text": "Won't you take me back again? I'll be waiting here till then / On the outside looking in",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1988 August 24, Mervyn Rothstein, “Kirk Douglas And Anger”, in New York Times, retrieved 2015-08-02",
          "text": "\"In a sense, I've always felt on the outside, looking in,\" Mr. Douglas says. \"It's my background, damn it. My father was an illiterate Russian immigrant, a ragman, the lowest rung on the economic scale. There were six sisters and my mother; I was the only boy. To be a young Jewish boy in a town—Amsterdam, in upstate New York—that was quite anti-Semitic.\"",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1997 May 18, Marianne Macdonald, “Who is Paul Theroux?”, in Independent (UK), retrieved 2015-08-02",
          "text": "A recurrent theme of Theroux's books is this sense of being an alien, on the outside looking in.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2007 August 2, Ishaan Tharoor, “India's Democratic Advantage”, in Time, retrieved 2015-08-02",
          "text": "While China's economy soars, hundreds of millions of migrant workers and rural peasants have been left on the outside looking in.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Excluded from a group, process, or opportunity, and feeling downhearted as a result."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "Excluded",
          "excluded"
        ],
        [
          "downhearted",
          "downhearted"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) Excluded from a group, process, or opportunity, and feeling downhearted as a result."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "En-au-on the outside, looking in.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/f/f7/En-au-on_the_outside%2C_looking_in.ogg/En-au-on_the_outside%2C_looking_in.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f7/En-au-on_the_outside%2C_looking_in.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "word": "alienated"
    },
    {
      "word": "on the outside looking in"
    }
  ],
  "word": "on the outside, looking in"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-04-30 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-04-21 using wiktextract (210104c and c9440ce). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

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