I’m Out!

What does it mean to out?

Out is the opposite of in. Yet, to out someone has so many meanings these days.

The Collins English Dictionary says:

“An outing is a short enjoyable trip, usually with a group of people, away from your home, school, or place of work. One evening, she made a rare outing to the local discotheque…”

Rare, all right – discotheque? Are there any still around?

According to Wikipedia:

“Coming out of the closet, or simply coming out, is a metaphor for LGBT people’s self-disclosure of their sexual orientation or of their gender identity …”

From the Cambridge Academic Content Dictionary:

“… to out someone — to discover someone’s opinions or intentions: Why don’t you sound her out before the meeting…”

Nope, not quite what I was looking for.

However, the Urban Dictionary did their part to amuse my day and put me onto the winner:

“To reveal confidential, true, personal information about someone against their will and without their permission. Someone who is outed usually experiences embarrassment, social stigma, loss of friends, income, and/or other negative consequences as a result of being outed.”

Outting Someone

To out someone, by exposing them to public humiliation sounds cruel. Have you ever been in that situation or witnessed such an event?

We’ve seen it so many times in movies and read it in books. It’s what brings on the finale for the film that exposes all those lies kept. In Confessions of a Shopaholic, there is a scene where our heroine gets outted by her debt collector, on national television. I still cringe every time I see that scene.

In my novel, Avoiding the Pity Party, the heroine, Deanne Harrison, OUTS her cheating fiancé in the middle of her wedding ceremony in front of all her friends and family.

And then her life gets complicated.

Why not check it out here…

Because it’s out next week! Woo-hoo.