Talk:school's out

RFD discussion: August 2020–September 2021
This sense of out can also apply to other organizations, such as workplaces, colleges, etc. I've added the relevant sense to out: "(of an organization, etc.) Temporarily not in operation, or not being attended as usual. when school gets out for today, when college is out for the summer" PseudoSkull (talk) 00:30, 15 August 2020 (UTC)
 * As a Brit, I always found the phrase "school's out" very confusing as a child when I heard it in movies etc and wasn't sure how to parse it. I've never heard it used of a workplace, but if it was, I would assume it was an extension of the school sense. The OED includes "school is out" as a separate subsense, marked "chiefly US". So I don't think this is as simple as you think it is. Ƿidsiþ 06:39, 5 September 2020 (UTC)
 * I'm not familiar with out being used of organizations other than schools and, possibly, institutions of "higher learning". DCDuring (talk) 08:02, 6 September 2020 (UTC)
 * There are some "random website" hits for uses such as "the factory / power station / plant was out for a few days / hours / for some time", and so on and so forth. This can merge towards sense #13 "(of certain services, devices, or facilities) Not available; out of service". Mihia (talk) 22:50, 6 September 2020 (UTC)
 * To me, a school being out ("not holding sessions for attendance; not attended") feels like a different sense of out from a power station being out ("out of commission, e.g. due to a fire"). - -sche (discuss) 15:50, 26 September 2020 (UTC)


 * I can see how the sense (which I would word more along the lines of "not holding sessions for attendance; not attended" to better distinguish it from the examples of something being "not in operation" due to being "out of commission") could be applied to other organizations. The component parts of "school's out" are also not tightly bound; for one thing you can say schools (plural) are (or were) out for summer, and for another you can separate the parts and say "school is not out yet", "school will not be out for another three months". I am inclined to redirect school&#39;s out to the relevant sense of out. - -sche (discuss) 15:50, 26 September 2020 (UTC)


 * Keep and add to the prasebook project. -- Dentonius (my politics | talk) 17:46, 4 October 2020 (UTC)
 * Delete and teach Dentonius what a phrasebook is. —Μετάknowledge discuss/deeds 06:13, 12 October 2020 (UTC)


 * Hi, . Could you explain to me what the phrasebook is, please? &mdash; Dentonius 10:09, 16 December 2020 (UTC)
 * It's a small, usually pocket-sized book of phrases useful for a traveller with low or no competency in the language of interest. Ours should be similar in focus, and we can calibrate it by checking whether general-use published phrasebooks contain a given phrase — if they don't, we probably shouldn't either. —Μετάknowledge discuss/deeds 19:27, 16 December 2020 (UTC)


 * Keep. I added a second sense. It mostly applies to K-12 schools but occasionally higher ed. This never applies to stores, banks, government offices, stock markets, etc. although a stock analyst might say "school's out for the markets today too...":
 * School is not in session on a day generally expected to be a school day.
 * School's out on Thursday in Springfield; great time to catch up on homework.
 * Facts707 (talk) 21:02, 8 April 2021 (UTC)


 * Redirect to the appropriate sense of . I've added quotes showing being used this way in reference to the United States Congress and college. The sense may be more common in the US, but I can find instances in many places, including the UK, using the GloWbe. In my view, the sense added by Facts707 is indistinct. The sense is non-specific on the time period for which the organization is out and the two sense just represent different example contexts. I think -sche's definition is well written.  &mdash;The Editor's Apprentice (talk) 18:00, 21 May 2021 (UTC)
 * That's really rare, tho. Certainly school being out predates this extended use by quite some time, as well. DAVilla 20:10, 14 June 2021 (UTC)
 * As to the rarity, Google reports 842,000 results for "Congress is out" and 1,270,000 for "college is out for", though, as always, consider those numbers with a fair amount of skepticism. I can't dispute your claims of one predating the other. What I can do is provide what I believe is a early quote involving the sense of not in the context of school. I'm listing it here and not at the entry because I am not too confident in its relevance.
 * Take care. &mdash;The Editor's Apprentice (talk) 19:30, 20 June 2021 (UTC)
 * Move to out. DAVilla 08:15, 24 June 2021 (UTC)
 * Keep. DAVilla 20:10, 14 June 2021 (UTC)
 * Keep. DAVilla 20:10, 14 June 2021 (UTC)


 * redirect to out or delete, as this is just adjective sense 16 of out. We have some translations at break up that we could use for the relevant sense of out too, by the wayOverlordnat1 (talk) 10:54, 19 July 2021 (UTC)


 * Redirected. - -sche (discuss) 08:45, 29 September 2021 (UTC)