north of the border
1
7.5
- idiom
- US
:
al norte de la frontera
- At the beginning of fall, I decided to trek up north of the border to experience Montreal, Canada.
- miles north of the border
- just north of the border
So for every everybody that's smoking crack or or any of the drugs that are coming north of the border, clean up your act.
- So for every everybody that's smoking crack or or any of the drugs that are coming north of the border, clean up your act.
- Gad is professor of marketing at Concordia University up north of the border and host of the Sad Truth podcast.
Examples
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I am from north of the border, and I am a guide/outfitter who hunts for personal pleasure and am also a wildlife biologist.
Blog text (17) -
Amber Starks, a braider who began her own business north of the border in Vancouver, is fighting to change the law.
Blog text (23) -
Our 1999 conference will take us north of the border to our friendly neighbor, Canada.
Academic text (1999) -
Earlier this fall, I went up to Montreal, a Canadian gem just north of the border in French-speaking Quebec.
Blog text (17) -
This summer, I plan to travel north of the border to visit friends in Canada.
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The festival we attended last year was held north of the border in Vancouver.
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We often hear about the great healthcare available north of the border in Canada.
Antonyms
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase is compositionally built from 'north' + 'of' + 'the' + 'border' and a learner who knows those words can infer a general locational meaning (an area on the northern side of a boundary). However, interpreting this specifically as 'in/to Canada' depends on a US cultural/deictic perspective and world knowledge about which border is meant, so the mapping to 'Canada' is not fully predictable from the constituents alone.
Etymology
North of the border comes from the simple image of crossing the border to the north. From a US view, that move means going into Canada, so people use the phrase to mean 'in or to Canada'.