Other forms: outlets
An outlet is a way out — the opening that lets something escape. The outlet at the edge of the reservoir, water pushing through it into the stream below.
Most of the time, though, you meet it in shops. A retail outlet is a shop selling a company's goods, an outlet store or outlet village sells last season's stock cheaply, and a media outlet is a newspaper, station or website. The other common use is emotional: an outlet for anger, an outlet for creativity, something harmless to put a strong feeling into. It takes FOR — an outlet for stress, not an outlet of stress. One warning for travellers: in American English an outlet is the socket in the wall you plug things into, which British English calls a socket.
1nounoutletA shop that sells a particular company's goods, or one that sells them cheaply.
“The brand has forty outlets across the country.”
2nounreleaseA way of expressing or using up a strong feeling or energy.
“Running became his outlet after the divorce.”
synonyms: release
3nounpipeA pipe or opening through which liquid or gas escapes.
“The outlet was blocked with leaves and the yard flooded.”
4nounorganisationAn organisation that publishes news.
“The story was picked up by every major news outlet.”
5nounsocket(American) a point in a wall where you plug in electrical equipment.
“There's an outlet behind the sofa.”
synonyms: socket
outlet is a way out.
Outlet was made in English and never hid its parts: Middle English outlete, from outleten, "to let out" — out plus let. Dutch built the same word as uitlaat and German as Auslass. Everything it means now, from the drainpipe to the shopping village, is still just letting something out.
Middle English
outlete
English, today
outlet
From Middle English outlete, outeleate, ut-lete, derived from Middle English outleten (“to allow, let out, emit”), equivalent to out- + let. Compare West Frisian útlit (“outlet”), Dutch uitlaat (“outlet”), German Auslass (“outlet”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA