squeeze out

force someone or something out of a market or position by using pressure

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What does "squeeze sb/sth out" mean?

To squeeze someone out means to force them out of a market, industry, or competitive space through sustained economic pressure — typically by a larger, more powerful player exploiting its advantages over time. The process is usually gradual: a dominant company might undercut prices, absorb losses, or leverage its scale until smaller rivals simply cannot survive. The phrase carries a distinctly negative connotation, suggesting that the removal is unfair or predatory rather than the natural result of open competition. It is most at home in business journalism, financial analysis, and economic commentary, where the passive form — 'being squeezed out' — is particularly common because writers often want to highlight the plight of the weaker party. Unlike a sudden dismissal or a single decisive move, being squeezed out implies a slow, systemic erosion of a competitor's viability.

Examples

How to use it

subject + squeeze out + object (noun phrase)

The most straightforward transitive pattern, with the object — typically a company, competitor, or group — following the particle.

The merger allowed the combined company to squeeze out most of its regional competitors within a few years.

subject + squeeze + pronoun + out

When the object is a pronoun, it must appear between the verb and the particle — it cannot come after 'out'.

Once the platform achieved dominance in Europe, it squeezed them out one by one.

object + be squeezed out (+ by + agent)

The passive is extremely natural in this sense and is especially common in journalism, often with a 'by' phrase naming the dominant player.

Dozens of independent pharmacies have been squeezed out by large supermarket chains offering cut-price medicines.

try/seek/attempt to + squeeze out + object

The infinitive construction is common in business contexts to describe deliberate corporate strategy, often with a degree of critical framing.

Critics accused the multinational of seeking to squeeze out local competitors through predatory pricing.

subject + squeeze + object + out + of + market/sector/industry

Adding 'of' with a specific market or sector sharpens the context and is frequently used in financial reporting.

The tech giant has effectively squeezed smaller developers out of the most lucrative sectors of the app market.

Common Collocations

small businessescompetitorsindependent retailersrivalsthe marketlocal firms

Common Mistakes

Using it for sudden or one-time removal

'Squeeze out' implies gradual, sustained competitive pressure over time — not a single decisive action. For an abrupt or immediate removal, 'force out' or 'push out' is more appropriate.

✗ The board squeezed out the CEO at last night's emergency meeting.
✓ The board forced out the CEO at last night's emergency meeting.
Confusing it with 'crowd out'

'Crowd out' suggests displacement through sheer volume or presence (for example, large government borrowing crowding out private investment), whereas 'squeeze out' implies deliberate competitive pressure, often through pricing or market dominance. They are not always interchangeable.

✗ Government spending has squeezed out private investors by simply occupying the same space.
✓ Government spending has crowded out private investors by simply occupying the same space.
Pronoun placed after the particle

When the object is a pronoun, it must go between 'squeeze' and 'out'. Placing a pronoun after 'out' is ungrammatical in English.

✗ The larger firms squeezed out them within a decade.
✓ The larger firms squeezed them out within a decade.

Usage

This is a formal, business-register phrasal verb most at home in journalism, economics, and corporate contexts. The passive form ('being squeezed out') is especially common in news writing.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does 'squeeze out' always refer to business and markets, or can it describe other situations?

In this competitive sense, it is strongly anchored in commercial and economic contexts — think corporations, markets, industries, and competitors. You would not naturally use it to describe, say, someone being excluded from a social group or a personal relationship. There is also a completely separate physical sense (squeezing liquid out of something), but that is an entirely different meaning with a different type of object.

Can I use 'squeeze out' to describe something that happened quickly?

Not naturally. The phrase carries a strong implication of gradual, sustained pressure over time, and it often appears with expressions like 'over the past decade' or 'within three years' that reinforce this sense of slow erosion. If something happened suddenly or as a single decisive act, a verb like 'force out' or 'push out' would be a better fit.

Is 'squeeze out' mainly used in writing, or can I use it in conversation too?

It is primarily a written, formal-register phrase — most at home in business journalism, financial reporting, and economic analysis. You would certainly hear it in professional or semi-formal spoken contexts like business meetings or podcasts discussing economics, but it would sound unusually formal in casual everyday conversation.

Can 'squeeze out' be used without naming who is doing the squeezing?

Yes, and this is actually very common. The passive construction — 'small retailers are being squeezed out' — is frequently used in journalism precisely when the writer wants to focus on the victim rather than name a specific agent. You can add a 'by' phrase if you want to identify the dominant player, but it is not required.

What kinds of entities are typically 'squeezed out'?

The object is almost always a smaller, more vulnerable party — independent retailers, local firms, niche players, or smaller competitors in a given market. The subject doing the squeezing is typically a large, powerful entity such as a tech giant, multinational chain, or dominant platform. This power imbalance is central to what the phrase conveys.

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