outwit

Etymology

It is formed from English out- + wit.^{[2][3][4][5][6]}

Earliest recorded meaning

To get the better of someone by superior skill or ingenuity: about 1630, in Cleocreton & Cloryana.^[2][5] The date is later elsewhere: the 1650s in Etymonline, 1645–55 in Dictionary.com and the mid 17th century in the Shorter Oxford.^[3][6][4]

Semantic evolution

The core sense has not changed, but the moral colouring has: Johnson (1755) defined the verb as "to cheat; to overcome by stratagem", and his quotation from L'Estrange complains that "the world calls it out-witting a man, when he is only out-knaved".^[7] Modern dictionaries stress cleverness or ingenuity, and Oxford's still mentions deception.^[8][5][9] A second sense, to surpass in wisdom or knowledge, is recorded from 1659, and the OED follows it to 1847;^[2] Merriam-Webster Unabridged quotes Emerson's "outsee seers and outwit sages" for this now archaic use.^[5]

Timeline

• c. 1630 – to get the better of someone by superior skill or craft.^[2][5]
• 1659 – to surpass in wisdom or knowledge (until 1847).^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. To get the better of someone by cunning or ingenuity: The prisoner outwitted his guards and slipped away.^[8][5][2][9]
2. (archaic, 1659–1847) To be wiser or more knowledgeable than someone.^[5][8][4][2]

Related words

• wit
• inwit

Usage notes

Middle English also had a noun outwit, an external power of perception or bodily sense, recorded from about 1400 in Piers Plowman and contrasted there with inwit.^[2][10] Etymonline adds the meaning "knowledge gained by observation or experience".^[3] The OED gives the noun its own entry and marks it obsolete.^[2]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
7. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
8. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
9. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)