"night out"

[Stefan Ram]

There is a meaning of the noun "out" that I cannot find in
all dictionaries, but I do find it in the Wiktionary:

|out (plural outs)
...
|(dated) A trip out; an outing.
|Us London lawyers don't often get an out; and when we do,
|we like to make the most of it, you know.
|1852-53, Charles Dickens, Bleak House

. I'd say, it's not dated when when preceded by "night" or
"hike" (as in "a night out" or "a hike out") or other nouns.

For example, I find:

|Whether you're up for a hiking trail adventure, a night out
|with friends, or a relaxing ... look that is fitting for a
|lunch out with the family or a hike out in the fields.

in the Web, and the - given the context - words like
"a night out" or "a lunch out" do not sound dated.

Other quotations from the web:

|Barbie is having a cook out with all of her close friends.

|The setting to any gathering is important and a camp out
|should be no exception.

|Digital skills: planning a trip out using the internet.

Maybe it's just "an out" in isolation that's dated,
but not "a night/hike/lunch/cook/camp/trip out"?

[Horace LaBadie]

Post by Stefan Ram
There is a meaning of the noun "out" that I cannot find in
|out (plural outs)
...
|(dated) A trip out; an outing.
|Us London lawyers don't often get an out; and when we do,
|we like to make the most of it, you know.
|1852-53, Charles Dickens, Bleak House
. I'd say, it's not dated when when preceded by "night" or
"hike" (as in "a night out" or "a hike out") or other nouns.

From the textual context of the novel, it appears to mean a case that
requires them as lawyers to go out of London. Therefore, a bit of
lawyerly jargon. Something similar to what one might find in Rumpole of
the Bailey. (Mr. Guppy, the speaker, is actually a law clerk.)

Post by Stefan Ram
|Whether you're up for a hiking trail adventure, a night out
|with friends, or a relaxing ... look that is fitting for a
|lunch out with the family or a hike out in the fields.
in the Web, and the - given the context - words like
"a night out" or "a lunch out" do not sound dated.
|Barbie is having a cook out with all of her close friends.
|The setting to any gathering is important and a camp out
|should be no exception.
|Digital skills: planning a trip out using the internet.
Maybe it's just "an out" in isolation that's dated,
but not "a night/hike/lunch/cook/camp/trip out"?

[Peter Moylan]

Maybe it's just "an out" in isolation that's dated, but not "a
night/hike/lunch/cook/camp/trip out"?

Correct, and hardly surprising. It's common in English to attach an
adverb or preposition to a noun to create a phrasal noun. It's far less
common to take that adverb or preposition and make it a noun in its own
right.

As it happens, there are a couple of places where "out" can be used as a
noun - someone will surely be along in just a minute to explain the
baseball meaning - but using it to mean "outing" is not one of them. If
it was 1850s slang, it didn't survive to the present day.