out of question
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English[edit]
Prepositional phrase[edit]
- (obsolete) Unquestionably, without question, certainly.
- c. 1601–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Twelfe Night, or What You Will”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene i]:
- Alas, Malvolio, this is not my writing,
Though, I confess, much like the character
But out of question, ’tis Maria's hand.
- 1644, J[ohn] M[ilton], The Doctrine or Discipline of Divorce: […], 2nd edition, London: [s.n.], →OCLC, book I, page 17:
- And out of question the cherfull help that may be in mariage toward sanctity of life, is the purest and so the noblest end of that contract […]
- 1772, Richard Hurd, letter addressed to Edward Gibbon dated 29 August, 1772, in Miscellaneous Works of Edward Gibbon, London: A. Strahan et al., p. 462,[1]
- […] the lustre of his hero’s fame, and the real power, which, out of question, he reserved to himself, would make us forget or overlook Cyaxares.
- (obsolete) Unquestionable, beyond question, certain.
- 1614, Walter Ralegh [i.e., Walter Raleigh], chapter 2, in The Historie of the World […], London: […] William Stansby for Walter Burre, […], →OCLC, 2nd book, §. 6, page 242:
- Of King Vaphres and Necho it is out of question, that neither of them was the great King Sesostris.
- 1727, Daniel Defoe, chapter 8, in An Essay on the History and Reality of Apparitions[2], London, page 130:
- So when [Jesus] came walking upon the Sea to his Disciples, and they were so frighted that they cried out, believing that they had seen a Spirit; it must be out of Question that there were such things, and that they, the Disciples, had heard of them […]
Usage notes[edit]
- Not to be confused with out of the question.