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Glite Dictionary
🚶‍♂️ To leave suddenly ✊ To strike
to walk out

to walk out

11 4.1
Stop work and leave a place as a protest by workers
  • phrasal verb
  • /wɔk aʊt/
translation icon : hacer huelga
  • During the strike, many employees walked out to voice their demands for safer working conditions.
  • walked out in protest

If you make us do designs for him, we're walking out like that was surprising.

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Examples

  • If we don't cede to your demands, how many women will walk out tomorrow?

    The Cheat (1915)

  • In fact, a while back, 200 employees walked out of a Walmart store, all at the same time.

    Blog text (13)

  • Thank you, Google employees for walking out today.

    Stanford

  • So right now everyone is walking out to the crowd.

  • First, the management team walked out of contract negotiations after only 10 minutes.

    Blog text (29)

  • And the School committee walked out of the bargaining session.

    Lex Fridman

  • In late 1994, thousands of members of the new military twice walked out and staged protests of their treatment.

    Academic text (1995)

  • Ron Barber refused to join the other Democrats when they walked out on the "contempt vote" regarding Eric Holder.

    Blog text (14)

  • African American students walked out of class to protest unfair treatment during the school assembly.

  • Teachers in Los Angeles walked out last week to demand better pay and working conditions.

Synonyms

to walk out of
vsto walk out
  • Informal
164 3.1

To leave a meeting or event suddenly to show you disagree

is specific to employees leaving work as a protest rather than general events
to strike
vsto walk out
133 3.2

To stop work as a protest to get better pay

is about leaving the workplace as an act of protest rather than group stoppage
to go on strike
vsto walk out
28 3.2

Stop working as a group to protest for better pay or conditions

is leaving the workplace as a protest rather than only stopping work
to down tools
vsto walk out
  • Literature
1 8.1

Workers stop work to protest about pay or conditions

is leaving the workplace to protest rather than just stopping work in place
to strike work
vsto walk out
5.7

To stop doing a job to protest for better pay or conditions

is the act of leaving the workplace to protest rather than only ceasing work

Antonyms

to remain
∞ 1.0

To stay in the same place or state and not change

How Disruptive

to walk out
11 4.1
to work to rule
  • Literature
7.5
go-slow
  • UK
1 7.4

Surface Forms

walk out infinitive
walked out past
walked out past participle
walking out present participle
walks out third person singular

Morphology

walk + out

The core idea of leaving is directly derivable from 'walk' (move on foot) + 'out' (away/exit), so a learner who knows both words would likely infer that 'walk out' involves leaving. However, the specific workplace/protest sense — stopping work and leaving as a form of protest — is a pragmatic extension of ‘leave’ that is not fully predictable from the constituents alone, so it requires some exposure.

Etymology

The expression walk out comes from workers putting down their tools and walking 'out' of a factory together to show their anger. That's why it means 'to stop work and leave as a form of protest'.