Outdrew

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To attract more attention, money, or people than another ; to pull a weapon faster than an opponent in a confrontation
2. To gain a greater amount of interest, funds, or audience compared to others ; to outpace someone in drawing a weapon quickly
3. To surpass others in terms of drawing interest or numbers ; to react more swiftly in withdrawing a weapon from its holder

Etymology: "Outdrew" is the simple past of "outdraw," so its real story is that of the verb it belongs to. That verb goes back to Old English "ūtdragan," a compound of "ūt" (out) and "dragan" (to draw, drag), and it has siblings across the Germanic languages: Dutch "uitdragen" and German "austragen" both still mean roughly "to carry out." The original sense was physical, to draw or carry something outward, and the figurative sense of drawing a crowd or an audience ahead of a rival came later. The second sense, to draw a weapon faster than an opponent, is the one that surprises most readers. It grows from the same physical idea of drawing something out of its place, with the speed of the draw as the point of comparison. Old English and Middle English speakers already used "out-" as a productive prefix meaning "beyond" or "surpassing," so "outdraw" simply meant to draw beyond what a rival could manage.

Synonyms: outperformed, surpassed, exceeded

Antonyms: fell short, underperformed