out of line
160
4.5
- idiom
:
fuera de lugar
- His comments during the meeting were completely out of line and offended everyone.
- get out of line
- step out of line
- a student out of line
Any woman that said anything out of line was called names.
- Any woman that said anything out of line was called names.
- Like, man, they are so, so rude and out of line.
- behaving correctly and they'll let me know if I'm out of line and, and everyone else's opinions. Like,
- And those who are against Kyle Rittenhouse say he was completely out of line and he wound up killing two people.
- Because supplement suppliers claimed that NAC might treat some conditions, the FDA alleged they were out of line.
- The only thing she can do is if she does something royally stupid, criminal, something, you know, it's completely out of line.
- He let me know that that was not my job, that I was out of line, that this is not, I do not own this brand and do not have the right to make these changes.
- One step out of line, boom, still back in there.
Examples
-
I couldn't make up my mind whether I'd been out of line or whether Finchley overreacted.
Fiction book (1990) -
Okay, maybe I was a little out of line there, all right?
-
I was really out of line.
-
Look, I might have been out of line before.
-
Was I out of line?
-
Speaking any earlier, he wrote, would have been out of line.
Academic text (2004) -
I don't even want to discuss how out of line America has become these days.
Blog text (3) -
The remark about your legs was way out of line, and your response was great!
Blog text (5) -
Ludd was totally rude and out of line, and Alex just does not get it.
Blog text (1) -
Mr. Dobbs, you're totally out of line.
Synonyms
63
3.5
Feeling uncomfortable because you do not belong in a place or situation
28
8.2
Acting in a way that is too rude or hurtful to others
21
3.7
Not allowed because it is outside the allowed area or against the rules
15
6.7
Not suitable for a situation or for what people expect
12
9.1
Morally and socially wrong to most people
3
7.8
Not following rules or expected standards
3
6.1
Unusual in a way that does not follow normal rules
Rude and likely to offend people
Antonyms
How Appropriate
Surface Forms
Morphology
The components 'out of' (outside) and 'line' (a boundary or standard) allow a learner to infer a figurative meaning of being 'outside acceptable bounds', so a B1 learner who knows the words could plausibly guess the sense. However, the use of 'line' to mean conformity to social/behavioral standards is a conventionalized, metaphorical extension rather than a purely literal composition, so the mapping is not fully predictable without some exposure.
Etymology
Out of line comes from the image of someone standing outside a neat line of people, like soldiers or a queue; being out of the line broke the rules or looked rude. So the phrase now means 'behaving in a way that is not acceptable'.