OUTCAST

Pronunciation (US):

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does outcast mean? 

• OUTCAST (noun)
  The noun OUTCAST has 1 sense:

1. a person who is rejected (from society or home)

  Familiarity information: OUTCAST used as a noun is very rare.

• OUTCAST (adjective)
  The adjective OUTCAST has 1 sense:

1. excluded from a society

  Familiarity information: OUTCAST used as an adjective is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• OUTCAST (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A person who is rejected (from society or home)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

castaway; Ishmael; outcast; pariah

Hypernyms ("outcast" is a kind of...):

unfortunate; unfortunate person (a person who suffers misfortune)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "outcast"):

heretic; misbeliever; religious outcast (a person who holds religious beliefs in conflict with the dogma of the Roman Catholic Church)

leper (a pariah who is avoided by others)

Harijan; untouchable (belongs to lowest social and ritual class in India)

Derivation:

outcast (excluded from a society)

• OUTCAST (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Excluded from a society

Synonyms:

friendless; outcast

Similar:

unwanted (not wanted; not needed)

Derivation:

outcast (a person who is rejected (from society or home))

 Context examples 

And you are not a pining outcast amongst strangers?

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

That was when he picked up with this outcast padre here.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Increase of knowledge only discovered to me more clearly what a wretched outcast I was.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

He found himself an outcast in the midst of the populous camp.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

On all the French marches are droves of outcasts, reivers, spoilers, and draw-latches, of whom I judge that these are some, though I marvel that they should dare to come so nigh to the castle of the seneschal.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Not one whole or handsome one among them, all were outcasts till Beth took them in, for when her sisters outgrew these idols, they passed to her because Amy would have nothing old or ugly.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

Sleep came upon me as it came on many other outcasts, against whom house-doors were locked, and house-dogs barked, that night—and I dreamed of lying on my old school-bed, talking to the boys in my room; and found myself sitting upright, with Steerforth's name upon my lips, looking wildly at the stars that were glistening and glimmering above me.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Oh, that I could give any idea of the scene; of that sweet, sweet, good, good woman in all the radiant beauty of her youth and animation, with the red scar on her forehead, of which she was conscious, and which we saw with grinding of our teeth—remembering whence and how it came; her loving kindness against our grim hate; her tender faith against all our fears and doubting; and we, knowing that so far as symbols went, she with all her goodness and purity and faith, was outcast from God.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

I am full of fears, for if I fail there, I am an outcast in the world for ever.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

Shall I be an outcast again this night?

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)