1787 T. Jefferson Writings (1859) II. 225 I believe there is no instance of any nation sending a minister to reside anywhere without an outfit.

1809 A. Henry Trav. & Adventures Canada 11 On the 15th of June, [I] again arrived in Montreal, bringing with me my outfits.

1867 J. F. Meline Two Thousand Miles on Horseback 74 The saddler who sold me my saddle assured me it was the best outfit he had furnished for some time. Bought a hat, and was told, ‘Well, Sir, I call that a good outfit.’

1898 Westm. Gaz. 19 May 2/2 The ‘outfit’ allowance of £20..now given to officers joining the Volunteers.

1924 T. E. Lawrence Home Lett. (1954) 359 A solo isn't as secure on a wet road as a side-car outfit.

1959 L. A. Mannheim Successful Flash Photogr. 130 (heading) A stroboscopic flash outfit.

1989 Mail on Sunday Camping & Caravanning 63/1 There are two parts to a caravan outfit, the car and the 'van.

1840 R. H. Dana Two Years before Mast xxvii. 293 The usual outfit of pumps, white stockings, loose white duck trowsers [etc.].

1875 Scribner's Monthly Dec. 286/1 The comfortable dress for the mother or flannel outfit for the baby, can be sent.

1915 J. Buchan Thirty-nine Steps vii. 175 I found a complete outfit laid out for me—dress clothes with all the fixings..even a pair of patent shoes.

1946 Chicago Daily News 10 Aug. 12/3 Elaborate ceremonial outfits are fashioned by the women of the tribe.

1992 Taos (New Mexico) News 1 Oct. d2/2 (advt.) Dress up in your finest Wild West outfit, come dance and gamble the night away.

1851 H. Melville Moby-Dick xxvi. 126 Courage was one of the great staple outfits of the ship, like her beef and her bread.

1865 M. Arnold Ess. Crit. i. 39 [The] members have, for their proper outfit, a knowledge of Greek, Roman, and Eastern antiquity.

1872 H. P. Liddon Some Elements Relig. i. 5 The conviction that religion is..an indispensable part of man's moral and mental outfit.

1881 N.Y. Med. Rec. 5 Nov. 512/1 I procured a full outfit for smoking [opium]..: A pipe..and a buffalo-horn box (hop toy) for holding the opium.

1938 Amer. Speech 13 186/1 The hypodermic outfit including all accessories... The opium smoker's outfit complete.

1951 N.Y. Times 14 June 22/2 ‘John’ went into a drugstore on upper Park Avenue, asked for an ‘outfit’, and for 45 cents got an envelope containing a medicinal dropper and a hypodermic needle, such as used by ‘mainliners’ for heroin injections.

1953 W. S. Burroughs Junkie xii. 119 She keeps outfits in glasses of alcohol so the junkies can fix in the joint and walk out clean.

1960 Times Lit. Suppl. 16 Sept. 589/4 Anyone who has snorted or used the outfit and then kicked would find it [sc. the book] of absorbing interest.

1991 Los Angeles Times 6 June a11 ‘They'll go up to someone and say, “Yeah, man, how do you clean your outfit?”’ referring the syringe and needle addicts use.

1833 K. McKenzie Let. in F. A. Chardon Jrnl. Fort Clark (1997) 355 He could not sell the Sioux outfit in which Leclèrc had a share until Spring.

1870 N.Y. Clipper 16 Apr. 15/4 The banjo is also one of the great features of the ‘outfit’.

1883 ‘M. Twain’ Life on Mississippi ii. 31 In that day, all explorers travelled with an outfit of priests. De Soto had twenty-four with him... The expeditions were often out of meat, and scant of clothes, but they always had the furniture and other requisites for the mass.

1926 Melody Maker Jan. 9/2 Ted Brown's Cafe de Paris Band, a seven-piece outfit with no brass.

1926 J. Black You can't Win iv. 37 I was left on the bench with the two drunks... The desk man pointed to us. ‘What will I do with this outfit, Hayes?’

1927 W. Rogers in C. M. Russell Trails plowed Under p. xiii I tell you they was a pretty sad lookin outfit. They sho was a lonesome layout.

1930 D. L. Sayers Strong Poison iv. 48 You must get me passed in as part of your outfit.

1943 H. L. Mencken Heathen Days vii. 89 I was presently playing trios and quartettes with an outfit that devoted four hours of every week to the job.

1977 J. Wainwright Do Nothin' v. 67 Some of the modern outfits don't have brass. Just a four-piece sax line-up.

1991 L. Sante Low Life iii. i. 220 One of the subordinate gangs under his control, an outfit led by Crazy Butch, was called the Squab Wheelmen in honor of his two preoccupations.

1848 H. D. Thoreau in Union Mag. (N.Y.) Aug. 74/1 Newspapers..than which nothing can be more acceptable to a backwoods people. It was really an important item in our outfit, and, at times, the only currency that would circulate.

1869 S. Bowles Our New West viii. 163 With a mounted escort of about twenty gallant young miners..we made up a grand ‘outfit’.

1890 L. C. D'Oyle Notches Rough Edge Life 55 The best fellows in this ‘outfit’ were Choctaw Bill..and Frank Norris, the ‘boss’, an ex-Yale student.

1900 J. London In Far Country in Son of Wolf 72 It was an imposing fleet, for the outfit was large, and they were accompanied by a disreputable contingent of..voyageurs.

1931 Amer. Speech 7 5 It was not long after the advent of the pioneers that there were organized buffalo ‘outfits’.

1992 H. N. Schwarzkopf It doesn't take Hero xviii. 342 If a stevedore unit showed up when he didn't need any more stevedores, he'd say, ‘I hereby dub this a transportation outfit. You guys go out and drive trucks’.

1909 Man-o'-Warsman Jan. 155 After our enlistment..with the land soldiers, these men, tired of the monotony of garrison life, had joined our outfit for the chance to move about on the ships.

1916 W. S. Churchill Memorandum 9 Nov. in World Crisis (1927) II. App. v. 564 Let me point out the need of establishing without delay an Anti-Tank Committee... We ought to have a complete anti-tank outfit by the spring.

1930 F. A. Pottle Stretchers 28 The bowlegged officer flew into a disciplinary rage and addressed the boy as follows: ‘What outfit do you belong to? How long have you been in the army?’

1966 Inland (Inland Steel Co., Chicago) Autumn 13/1 Recruits from all over the United States are assigned to the same military outfit.

1991 M. E. Wertsch Military Brats ii. 34 A good military outfit is one that is prepared to control any situation, no matter what the variables.

1940 Amer. Speech 15 248 The Giants are a good outfit, he thinks, but the infield is inferior to the outfield.

1976 Cumberland News 3 Dec. 20/3 That other player is with a Scottish Premier Division outfit, I understand, and has impressed Moncur as the kind of man who could make an impact in English football.

1993 Eng. Rugby May 6/1 The former Division Two outfit are pointless at the foot of Division Three and are certain to go down, even if they win the league fixtures that remain.