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Difference between “Out and away” and “Out and out”

out and away

1. definitely; unquestionably:

  • He was out and away the most brilliant student in the class.

2. far away:

  • There are days when everyone else in the house is out and away and she writes a melancholy note on loneliness.

out and out

1. absolute; unqualified:

  • We are not among the out-and-out admirers of the political opinions of this school.

2. (parenthetical) definitely; unquestionably:

  • She is the cleverest woman I know, out and out.

3. = out and away 1:

  • She is out and out the prettiest girl in the station.

Note: The expression is not antonymous in meaning to the phrase in and in

1. sharing or identifying fully with a person:

  • I am bound in and in with my forbears. We are all nobly born; fortunate those who know it.

2. used with reference to marriages with near relatives in successive generations:

  • The marrying in and in of the same family tends constantly to weakness or idiocy in the children.