out
Preserved but no longer current.
A dram glass. These glasses are two-OUT (half-quartern), three-OUT, and four-OUT. An habitué of a gin-shop, desirous of treating a brace of friends, calls for "a quartern of gin and three OUTS," by which he means three glasses which will exactly contain the quartern. Really, the word glasses is understood. The man actually means, and one or more three-OUT glasses.
Era: ca. 1874 (Victorian)
Sources & notes
Historical definition reproduced from Hotten’s The Slang Dictionary (1874, public domain; Project Gutenberg #42108, retrieved 2026-07-31). Reflects the attitudes of its era.
Common questions
What does “out” mean?
A dram glass. These glasses are two-OUT (half-quartern), three-OUT, and four-OUT. An habitué of a gin-shop, desirous of treating a brace of friends, calls for "a quartern of gin and three OUTS," by which he means three glasses which will exactly contain the quartern. Really, the word glasses is understood. The man actually means, and one or more three-OUT glasses.
Is “out” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.