what does "outplay" mean?

[jdl22]

People in these forums use the word outplay reasonably often. I've thought about what exactly this means. Here are some examples, they are similar to things I've read, though none are exact quotes:
- I wouldn't normally limp with xy there but I feel like I can outplay these weak opponents after the flop

- I was really impressed with the amateur's skill in that WPT/WSOP tournament. He outplayed the famous pros.

- One problem these top level pros have in the large field tournaments is that they bluff too often against calling stations. Like Brunson pointed out in S/S, you can't outplay these bad players, you have to show the best hand to win.

- Good NL players should limp with a lot of hands. They can win back any money lost in not raising preflop by outplaying their opponents postflop.

In Sports it's clear what outplay means. The Pistons clearly outplayed the Lakers in the NBA finals - they demonstrated that they were the better team by playing at a much higher level. It is similar in other competitive games. If I play chess against Kasparov he will outplay me since I only know the rules and no strategy at all.

In poker it varies by opponent and cards. If you get your opponent to fold a better hand than yours, you have just outplayed them. If you get your opponent to pay off your flopped trips when he has only paired the other card then you have outplayed him.

I think outplaying comes down to these things:
- you must get your opponent to commit a mistake according to the FTOP
- you must win the hand or any hands you lose must result in winning larger pots later in the game

btw I thought this up when I was playing some $5 SNGs which featured some fantastically bad play. You often see 4 or 5 limpers, a LP raiser making it 12 bb to go and 3 players all in on the flop all on the first hand. It occurred to me that I could outplay these players by simply sitting back (I think that literally folding every single hand would be roughly a break even strategy in these tournaments) waiting for an absolute monster and then betting huge. While that is the case, often in larger buy in SNGs you outplay opponents by stealing like a bandit on the bubble, which mostly doesn't work at the lower buy in tournaments.

Any thoughts?