to go off the reservation
1
9.9
- phrasal verb
- Offensive
:
[OFENSIVO] expresión ofensiva que significa 'actuar por su cuenta'
- They have no incentive to go off the reservation to be critical; they have every incentive to say that things are better now while simultaneously pretending that the past no longer matters.
So the news they weren't like you're a Nutter, like you've gone off the reservation.
- So the news they weren't like you're a Nutter, like you've gone off the reservation.
- But I think if you asked me what would work best, if you want to go off the reservation 'cause I see you a little bit like me that way.
Examples
-
Are you saying some cowboy's gone off the reservation?
-
Well, sergeant Beckett went off the reservation had an unsanctioned, unauthorized meet with gazakov.
-
How did I go off the reservation?
Blog text (4) -
You have officially gone off the reservation.
-
So he goes off the reservation and starts saying, hey, I'll cure cancer guys.
-
But I think if you asked me what would work best, if you want to go off the reservation 'cause I see you a little bit like me that way.
-
He's gone off the reservation.
-
"You really think we're dealing with one of our own guys who's gone off the reservation?"
Fiction book (1996) -
Magruder thinks he's just nutty enough to go off the reservation.
Fiction book (1995) -
She decided to go off the reservation and pursue her own ideas instead of following the plan.
Synonyms
19
7.5
To act alone and ignore rules or orders
8
7.4
To do something very different from what most people expect or usually do
Antonyms
How Independent
19
7.5
11
6.2
- Offensive
1
9.9
144
3.5
81
3.2
Surface Forms
Morphology
go + off + the + reservation
Although the parts 'go' + 'off' + 'reservation' could be read literally as leaving a reserved area, the idiomatic sense 'act independently/outside accepted boundaries' is a culturally specific metaphor tied to US reservations and group politics. This specific extended meaning is not predictably derivable from the constituents and would likely be missed by a B1 learner who has not encountered the expression, so it is opaque.
Etymology
Go off the reservation comes from US history: if someone left the reservation, the area set aside for Native American groups, they were outside the agreed area. That's why today go off the reservation means 'to act alone or outside what a group expects'.