English edit

Etymology edit

From out of (preposition) + place (noun).[1][2]

Pronunciation edit

Prepositional phrase edit

out of place (idiomatic)

  1. Not in the proper arrangement or situation.
    Synonyms: dislocated, dystopic, ectopic, heterotopic, malpositioned, misplaced, out of keeping with
    Antonyms: in keeping with, in place
    No wonder I couldn’t find it—it was out of place.
    She came in out of the storm with not a hair out of place.
    Amongst all those horsey people I felt quite out of place.
    • 1915, Virginia Woolf, chapter VII, in The Voyage Out, London: The Hogarth Press, published 1949, →OCLC, page 105:
      A garden smoothly laid with turf, divided by thick hedges, with raised beds of bright flowers, such as we keep within walls in England, would have been out of place upon the side of this bare hill.
  2. Inappropriate for the circumstances.
    Synonyms: unseemly; see also Thesaurus:unsuitable
    Antonyms: appropriate, seemly; see also Thesaurus:suitable
    That remark was out of place.

Derived terms edit

Translations edit

See also edit

  • (inappropriate for the circumstances): atopic

References edit

  1. ^ out of place, adv. and adj.”, in OED Online  , Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, March 2022.
  2. ^ out of place”, in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present, reproduced from Christine Ammer, The American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms, Boston, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin, 2003, →ISBN.