outskirt

[ out-skurt ]

noun

1. Often outskirts. the outlying district or region, as of a city, metropolitan area, or the like:

   to live on the outskirts of town; a sparsely populated outskirt.

2. Usually outskirts. the border or fringes of a specified quality, condition, or the like:

   the outskirts of respectability.

Word History and Origins

Origin of outskirt¹

First recorded in 1590–1600; out- + skirt

Example Sentences

Then there are the industries in the city’s outskirts - like the coal-fired brick kilns - adding even more pollution to the air.

From BBC

His organisation brings young people to a refashioned unit on an industrial estate on the outskirts of Darwin, providing a space to relax, a sensory room and a gym.

From BBC

Though initially a talking point on the outskirts of the right's politics, the lambasting of no-fault divorce has begun to leak into the legislatures and party platforms of ruby-red states as they've moved farther right.

From Salon

That appears to have been the case in the neighbourhood of La Torre, on the outskirts of Valencia, where the bodies of seven people were recovered from the garage of a residential building.

From BBC

Later, a woman in her 60s and a man around 30 were killed near Kibbutz Afek, on the outskirts of the coastal city of Haifa, according to paramedics.

From BBC

Related Words

• boundary
• brink
• corner
• end
• fringe
• line
• lip
• margin
• mouth
• perimeter
• rim
• shore
• threshold
• verge