Meaning & use
share-out
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Meanings
nouncountableBritish
An act of dividing something, such as money or goods, among several people.
Grammar: Countable and usually with a: a share-out of the profits.
Patterns
- a share-out of something
- a share-out among someone
After the sale, there was a share-out of the profits among the staff.
The children watched the share-out of sweets carefully.
Her uncle organized a fair share-out of the family's old furniture.
nouncountableBritish
The thing that is divided up, or a person's portion of it.
Grammar: Can mean a single payment: a share-out arrived in the post.
Patterns
- get a share-out
Each member received a small share-out at the end of the year.
The lottery syndicate's share-out came to five hundred pounds each.
He used his share-out to buy a new bicycle.
Word forms
| plural | share-outs |
|---|
Common combinations
- a fair share-out
- The committee promised a fair share-out of the grant money.
- the share-out of profits
- The share-out of profits took place in December.
- a share-out among members
- A share-out among members was agreed at the meeting.
- an annual share-out
- The co-op holds an annual share-out of its surplus.
- the final share-out
- They argued during the final share-out of the estate.
Synonyms and how they differ
- distribution
- Distribution is the standard, more formal word and can mean sending goods to many places, not only dividing them.
- division
- Division stresses the splitting into parts, not who receives them.
- split
- Split is the usual informal American word and suggests a simple division, often into equal parts.
- allocation
- Allocation suggests an official decision about who gets what, so it is less casual than share-out.
Opposites
Word family
- share verb
- to divide or use together with others
- share noun
- a portion that belongs to or is given to someone
- sharer noun
- a person who shares
- shareholder noun
- an owner of shares in a company
Commonly confused: share-out or share out?
share-out vs share out
As a two-word phrasal verb, share out means to divide up; the hyphenated share-out is the noun.
Practice
After the charity sale there was a ____ of the money among the volunteers.
Choose one answer.
A share-out is the dividing of something among a group, which fits sharing money among volunteers. The other compounds mean unrelated things.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “share-out”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.