outie, noun

/ˈaʊti/
Forms:
Also outee.
Origin:
EnglishShow more English out + (informal) noun-forming suffix -ie; see quotation 1982.
slang
A down-and-out; an inhabitant of the outers. Also attributive. Cf. bergie sense 2.
1974 J. Matthews Park 24I doan mind to go to jug if I robba outie or stick him witta lem but I doan go to jug for rape.
1976 K.M.C. Motsisi in Drum Sept.It’s a sad Kid Boikie who rejoins me and shouts like this: ‘Laat ons loop. Maybe ons meet die outies daar.’ We leave and head on. We arrive and, well, there are the outies.
1977 Family Radio & TV 23 Jan. 19A hardened outie becomes resigned to sleeping on cardboard in shop doorways, but he doesn’t enjoy it.
1977 Family Radio & TV 20The behaviour of my own outie companions dramatically illustrated what Reg B— was talking about...There was always that one overwhelming thought in an outie’s mind: where is the next dop coming from?...Young working girls on their way to the office, they looked us over and then the prettier girl shouted: ‘Voetsek, you bleddie outies!’.
1981 Sunday Times 16 Aug. 13I immediately contacted the city police who agreed to deliver the ‘outies’ they picked up here...The success rate for bringing tramps back to the straight and narrow was not great...‘But if I can rehabilitate just one out of 50 “outies” I will be happy,’ he said.
1982 Sunday Times 16 May (Mag. Sect.) 1Jo’burg’s ‘outies’ are reluctantly having to change their travel plans. Their outlawing by the Durban City Council means that few of these self-styled ‘gentlemen of the road’ will be making their annual trek to Durban...Give the watchmen their due: the ‘outies’ (so-called because they’re without homes or jobs) are an unprepossessing bunch.
1990 L. Maber in Weekly Mail 22 June (Weekend Mail) 1They insist they are not hobos; rather they prefer to be called outies.
A down-and-out; an inhabitant of the outers. Also attributive.
Entry Navigation

Visualise Quotations

Quotation summary

Senses

19741990
outers, nounn.outjie, nounn.
Copyright © 2025 Dictionary Unit for South African English