live out

1. To go through and complete a particular period of time. In this usage, a noun or pronoun can be used between "live" and "out." I just want to live my remaining years out on my grandfather's farm in the country.

2. To successfully achieve, accomplish, or complete some goal or desire. In this usage, a noun or pronoun can be used between "live" and "out." At the age of forty, I'm finally living out my dream of being a professional author. He's living his hopes out of becoming a surgeon.

3. To do something that mimics or acts out one's intimate dreams, desires, passions, or fantasies. In this usage, a noun or pronoun can be used between "live" and "out." The experience puts amateurs in the pilot seat, giving them the chance to live out their fantasies of flying an airplane.

4. To dwell or reside in a location away from one's place of employment or education. They offered the nanny a room in their house, but he said he preferred to live out.

1. Complete or survive the end of a period of time, as in Grandpa wants to live out his days in a warmer climate. [First half of 1500s]

2. Reside away from one's place of employment, as in She's a fine housekeeper, but insists on living out. This expression is used primarily for domestic help. [Mid-1800s] Also see live in, def. 1.

3. live out of. Lead a lifestyle characterized by a particular item. This phrase appears in such idioms as live out of a suitcase, meaning "to travel so much that one has no time to unpack one's belongings," or live out of cans, meaning "to eat only canned food for lack of other foods or time to prepare them." For example, Traveling for months on end, he got very tired of living out of a suitcase, or We had neither gas nor electricity for a week and had to live out of cans.