the outside world

the outside world

The people, culture, ideas, or experiences beyond an enclosed, sheltered, or remote place, situation or environment. Being raised out on the farm meant Jacob had little knowledge of the outside world. Anthropologists came upon an indigenous society that had had no previous contact with the outside world.
See also: outside, world
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

the outside ˈworld

,

the world outˈside

the rest of the world; somewhere where you are in contact with or have the normal way of life of most people: After 15 years in a monastery, he got a job in the outside world. It was quite a shock for him.
See also: outside, world
Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary
See also:
  • expand
  • expand (one's) horizons
  • expand horizons
  • widen (one's) horizons
  • free trip
  • (one) needs to get out more
  • someone needs to get out more
  • pack (someone or something) into (something or some place)
  • pack into
References in classic literature
In addition to the Wizard two other personages from the outside world had been allowed to make their home in the Emerald City.
There are a dozen ways of communicating with the outside world, and when that's once done, it seems to me that the position of Squire Fentolin of St.
I am not a betting man, but I am prepared to bet you a hundred pounds to one that you have made your last communication with the outside world until I say the word."
"And I used to think," she said, "that after all I could only keep you a little time - that presently the voices from the outside world would come whispering in your ears, and you would steal back again to where the wheels of life were turning."
But little we cared for the gloom and the loneliness of the outside world; we kept them at bay with the light of the fire and the laughter of our young lips.
John, cooped up in the valley, and absorbed in his work, had had little chance of learning the news of the outside world during the last twelve years.
As a business investment, yes; for the virtues of the valley were on the eve of being discovered by the outside world, and no better location for a summer home could be found.
We felt that once beyond it we might look with some little hope of success for a passage to the outside world.
They were passing through on their way to the outside world along the corridors we had just traversed.
And let me tell you, if you have not already realized it, the chances are a thousand to one that not one of us ever will see the outside world again.
One great regret we had, and that was to leave our old camp behind us, not only for the sake of the stores which remained there, but even more because we were losing touch with Zambo, our link with the outside world. However, we had a fair supply of cartridges and all our guns, so, for a time at least, we could look after ourselves, and we hoped soon to have a chance of returning and restoring our communications with our negro.
At the slightest impact of the outside world upon his consciousness, his thoughts, sympathies, and emotions leapt and played like lambent flame.
At half-past twelve next day Lord Henry Wotton strolled from Curzon Street over to the Albany to call on his uncle, Lord Fermor, a genial if somewhat rough-mannered old bachelor, whom the outside world called selfish because it derived no particular benefit from him, but who was considered generous by Society as he fed the people who amused him.
"I am not fond of a schoolroom: I like the outside world better.
As I stood there beneath that tree--a tree which should have been part of a coal-bed countless ages since--and looked out across a sea teeming with frightful life--life which should have been fossil before God conceived of Adam--I would not have given a minim of stale beer for my chances of ever seeing my friends or the outside world again; yet then and there I swore to fight my way as far through this hideous land as circumstances would permit.