space out

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space out (third-person singular simple present spaces out, present participle spacing out, simple past and past participle spaced out)

1. (transitive) To position (objects, people, time slots, etc.) at regular intervals with a calculated space between them.

   She spaced out the yoga mats as much as she could while leaving room for some walkways.

   She spaced out her scheduled events as much as she could while leaving time for question-and-answer sessions.

   • 2022 October 5, Lauren Harby, “What We Know About Celine Dion's Health Battle”, in The List‎^[1]:

     Dion's first Las Vegas residency […] went on from 2003 to 2007, with a total of 714 shows […] [Her] second residency was more spaced out, with 427 shows. This allowed Dion to tour internationally during the pockets of time when she wasn't performing in Vegas.

2. (intransitive, idiomatic) To become distracted or disoriented; to lose attention or focus.

   Synonyms: daydream, tune out, zone out

   She spaced out when the speaker started droning about the fine-print details of convertible debentures.

   • 1980 December 6, Cindy Rizzo, Nancy Toder, “Jewish, Lesbian, Feminist, Psychologist, Author—All of the above and more”, in Gay Community News, volume 8, number 20, page 8:

     In that futility and rage, we're seeing incredible alcohol abuse, incredible drug abuse, compulsive sexuality. Just basically spacing out with not as much attention to political values, educational values, feeling connected to society in any kind of way. Sometimes I go to the bars and see these kids and think about the meaninglessness and the emptiness that they'll be feeling five or six years down the road when they're tired of partying.

   • 1999, Mike Judge, Office Space (motion picture), spoken by Peter Gibbons (Ron Livingston):

     Well, I generally come in at least fifteen minutes late, ah, I use the side door - that way Lumbergh can't see me, heh heh - and, uh, after that I just sorta space out for about an hour.

3. (transitive, dated, typing, printing) To increase the white space between letters, words or lines.

• spaced-out

• (increase the white space): letterspacing

• outpaces, paces out, saucepot