What does over and out mean?

Answer 1

The term over and the term out are a legacy from the birth of radio. The phrase is used when people speak on radios or CBs. Basically, it means that the other person is hanging up, as another way of saying goodbye.

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There is a lot of confusion about this out there. 'Over' and 'Out', when used correctly, cannot coherently be used together.

'Over' means that you have finished sending your message and are waiting for the other person to reply to you. You expect a response - the conversation is not concluded.

'Out' however, means that you have finished sending your message and do not require/are not waiting for a response - you no longer wish to talk to that person.

Using these together basically means "Message finished, I both am and am not waiting for you to answer me". It gets me every time TV popularises it, as it results in hours of arguments when it comes to people asking this very question.

Another version:

OVER - the full term is "Changing over and standing by" Not merely releasing the PTT as one does with modern equipment, by manually changing the antenna from the transmitter to the receiver and switching the HT supply over from the transmitter to the receiver, very long winded process.

OUT - Sent to say the station was closing down. The heater supply to the valves was turned off so the filaments in the valves went out.

As before mentioned, one is never over & out it is complete nonsense, lets leave to the movies & sad TV shows.