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Difference between See someone off and See someone out

see someone off

1. bid a person goodbye at an airport, train station, etc.:

  • The decks were crowded with voyagers and those who had come to see those voyagers off.

2. (coll.) force a person to go away:

  • I know an audience of stuffed shirts when I see one. Besides—I just had to see that pompous bastard off.

see someone out

1. take smb. to the door or exit:

  • “Did you leave your key with them?” “Yes; the maid who saw me out, took it from the door.”

2. (euph.) survive a person:

  • My dear wife is, I fear, frail in health—though I trust and pray she may see me out.

3. outlast smb. in a drinking contest:

  • He could see the Dundee people out any day, and walk home afterwards without staggering.