out the window

English

Pronunciation

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

Prepositional phrase

out the window

1. (idiomatic, colloquial) Made obsolete; altered drastically as a result of situational change.
   • 1990 June 8, “Newshour”, in PBS Newshour:

     Women can run, blacks can run, all sorts of people can run. We didn't think people like that could win in years past. That conventional wisdom is out the window now. That's good news.

   • 1995 September 9, “Aspects of the Bosnian Agreement are Discussed”, in NPR_Weekend:

     it's bad for principles that we thought were the basis for post Cold War security -- for example, non-aggression, pluralism, tolerance, things of that kind, and they 're out the window now. I mean this- this framework, for these principles, are the antithesis of principles that we allegedly were backing over the last 45 years of the Cold War.

   • 1995 November 3, “Nightline”, in ABC Nightline:

     It is a total, consuming quest to run for president of the United States, and to be president of the United States. You have to realize that privacy is out the window.

   • 2007 April 13, “"SEND"; Etiquette Guide for Using E-mail (review)”, in ABC_GMA:

     They're part a formal letter, part some type of dialogue. So, what are the rules? Is it okay to throw formality out the window? Does spelling matter?

2. (idiomatic, colloquial) Gone; departed; disappeared.
   • 2011, David Seaman, The Real Meaning of Life, page 178:

     Life had gone out the window and scampered off.