DCHP-1 Online

outfit ((n.))

• 1a n. Fur Trade the annual shipment of trading goods and supplies sent by a fur company to its trading posts collectively; also, any part of this shipment dispatched to or received by any particular post.

  See also: returns  

  • 1761  (1901)  Michilimackinac is the place of deposit, and point of departure, between the upper countries and the lower. Here, the outfits are prepared for the countries.
  • 1802  (1890)  The present copartnership or concern shall commence with the outfit of the year one thousand eight hundred and three and shall continue remain and be carried on for the space and term of twenty years hereafter.
  • 1829  (1909)  The White Beads asked for the trade with the Loucheux are not according to the order sent, 15 pounds only of the quantity received . . . are of the proper size, the remainder being the same as those in outfit 1825 so much complained of.
  • 1860  As the Company's out fit for the fur-trade has been lost with the Kitty, very little, if any, of their goods in store this winter at York Factory, will be taken to this place.
  • 1922  "He build a house at Nine-Mile Point and a stable. Say he goin' to keep stopping-house for freighters when they bring in the company's outfit in the winter."
  • 1963  . . . and so to the prairies by York boat, with the company's brigades that carried the yearly outfit of trade goods by river and portage from Hudson Bay to the remote trading-posts far inland.

• 1b n. Fur Trade the trading goods and supplies taken into the interior by fur-company employees such as traders and runners, by free traders, etc.

  • It is quite possible that outfit was first used by the Hudson's Bay Company in 1670 to designate the annual shipment of trading goods and supplies to its factories in Rupert's Land (see 1933 quote at def. 2a); it seems probable, moreover, that most modern senses of the term derive from this early fur-trade usage.

  • 1761  (1901)  Arrived again in Montreal, bringing with me my outfits.
  • 1765  (1933)  All my outfits had Dun well.
  • 1824  On his arrival in Montreal, and finding no supply of the articles he wanted . . . he was under the necessity of making a second journey to Albany for . . . the necessary supplies, named in the language of the trader, an out-fit.
  • 1920  "He say: We got get white man on our side. We got get white man who knows all outside ways. He bring an outfit in and trade wit' us."
  • 1956  . . . the men gave us the perfunctory Indian handshake sized up the outfit and passed a few inconsequentials.

• 2a n. Fur Trade the fiscal year of the Hudson's Bay Company. See 1933 quote.

  See also: outfit ((n.)) (def. 1a)  

  • 1791  (1947)  . . . the difficiency in the order for the carrot tobacco arises from the great overplus we have for the ensuing outfit. . . .
  • 1874,  (1956)  The Athabasca accounts for the Outfit were closed and the Packet given over to the care of Mr. Moberly.
  • 1913  The end of each business year--called "Outfit"--was May 31, upon which date the inventory of everything belonging to the Company at the fort was taken.
  • 1933  Since the incorporation of the Company in 1670, the word "outfit" has meant one trading year. That is, Outfit No. 1 was the trading year ending 1671 . . . and Outfit 263 is the trading year ending in 1933.
  • 1956  Looking at the piece so marked, you would know that it was for "Outfit" 1908, or the Company's fiscal year.

• 2b n. Fur Trade in fur trader's parlance, a year.

  • 1833  (1947)  I had thought of getting away in one or two outfits.
  • 1935  (1964)  Altogether sixteen deaths occurred during the outfit and only four births that I know of

• 3a n. equipment and supplies required for an expedition or other undertaking, such as might be engaged in by prospectors, miners, trappers, fishermen, etc.

  • 1822  (1928)  The fishermen, or planters, as they are called, obtain their outfits . . . from the merchants at Fortune Bay.
  • 1860  Considerable activity is displayed among the miners in town, preparing their outfits for the upper Fraser.
  • 1878  "We had a hull outfit, traps, grub, 'munition, pizen, an' we wor jest a-goin' to rake in a little pile. . . ."
  • 1931  . . . a toboggan loaded with a tent, stove, blankets, and a few provisions, drawn by dogs. This outfit will be setup every night on top of the snow. . . .
  • 1963  . . . they were adventurous types, men with sufficient means to provide themselves with the "outfit" necessary to start upon their homesteads. . . .

• 3b n. the equipment necessary for a specific job or activity.

  • 1910  There were crap-tables . . . roulette and faro outfits.
  • 1912  Once a week I take my little pack outfit up to the Sky-line claim for a load of peacock copper.
  • 1914  I see your cooking outfit's still lying around.
  • 1962  These were simple rigs for hauling hay and, like everything else about our outfit back in the outpost meadows, were made almost entirely of jack-pine wood

• 4a † n. a group of persons travelling together or otherwise associated in a common endeavor.

  • 1887  (1888)  It was gratifying to reflect that we were now an "outfit". . . .
  • 1905  A few hours later the "outfit" commenced the return journey from these mountain solitudes to prosaic civilization, and a last farewell was said to this strangely-fated camping-ground.
  • 1939  He often hired out with outfits going west to the mountains, or north to the Peace.
  • 1954  Outfit can refer either to the equipment of an expedition or to the expedition party itself or to any body of men, e.g. "the whole outfit was tired and hungry."
  • 1961  "You take the hockey outfits--Peewees, Juniors, Intermediates--ain't a year Wing didn't put up the money for their uniforms."

• 4b n. a company or firm.

  • 1912  The poll was held in the store of the French outfit, a low, rambling log shack, outside and in, the most picturesque post in the North.
  • 1958  Sixty outfits cutting pit-props in the area for the coal mines of Wales invaded the town.

• 4c † n. West a ranch or those working for it.

  • 1913  . . . some of the cattle carrying the brand of the outfit they worked for.
  • 1963  And the journey had been briefly broken . . . when we passed a sheep outfit on the move.

• 5a n. a vehicle and its team, as a sled and dogs, a chuckwagon and horses.

  • 1890  Genereaux, an old Hudson Bay man, in passing with a dog-train betwixt two thickets of timber, was suddenly pounced upon by one of these morose animals [a buffalo bull], which tossed dogs, sled and all into the air, and made a wreck of the outfit.
  • 1928  But turning, driving, slowly, drifting, keen of eye and steady of hand, the consummate old veteran put the unwieldy outfit through without so much as a kiss-off from one of the foam-masked niggerheads.
  • 1964  He's driving two chuckwagon outfits [and] will probably outride for a couple more. . . .

• 5b n. a machine, rig, or set of machinery for a specific job.

  • 1954  At harvest's end the owner of the outfit sold his machine and departed without paying his men.
  • 1954  Another well-remembered thresher was a big steam outfit with a tremendous capacity. . . . When used for breaking, this outfit would pull from 12 to 14 breaking plows each 14 inches wide. Nearly every homesteader in Ghost Pine worked on this outfit at some time or other.