mark out

mark out (third-person singular simple present marks out, present participle marking out, simple past and past participle marked out)

1. (transitive) To mark the boundaries of an area—used of land, wood, metal, etc.—before working upon it.
2. (transitive) To classify.

   I don't want to be marked out as a failure.

3. (transitive) To obliterate or cancel with a mark.

   to mark out an item in an account

4. (transitive) To distinguish.
   • 1998, Derek Beaven, chapter 9, in Acts of Mutiny, London: Fourth Estate, →ISBN, part 1 (Motion), page 34:

     The hanging-bowl lampshade in marbled glass was two decades pre-war – the kind that marked out aged people.

   • 2007, Naomi Sakr, Arab Television Today:

     The killing of more than 90 journalists in Iraq in 43 months after the invasion was to mark it out as one of the deadliest conflicts to cover.

• outmark