fine line
55
5.1
- noun
:
delgada línea
- Look, it's good to be cautious, but there's a fine line between caution and fear.
- walk a fine line
- tread a fine line
- a fine line separating
There's such a fine line between perseverance and delusion.
- There's such a fine line between perseverance and delusion.
- It's a it's such a fine line between love and hate.
- And there's a fine line between creativity and and insanity.
- And if you can walk that fine line, you could be a top player.
- It really is a fine line You have to walk both of them.
- I get the fact that this is a very, very fine line for you.
- I think that's, I think that's a very, it's a very hard fine line to to not crossover into.
- Yeah, that's a fine line I walk because I do so much financial media.
Examples
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There's a fine line between genius and insanity.
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There exists a fine line between identity and nationalism.
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And if you can walk that fine line, you could be a top player.
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It's a it's such a fine line between love and hate.
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People knew how to respect and walk that fine line between truth and fiction within their own characters.
Academic text (2004) -
But not everyone understands the fine line between reality and fantasy.
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Overall, this middle approach draws a very fine line between facts and opinions.
Academic text (2017) -
In the end, Congress is left to find the fine line between both extremes.
Academic text (1990) -
The special education teacher is a good resource for understanding the fine line between support and enablement.
Academic text (2014) -
It's a fine line between success and failure that many people struggle to navigate.
Synonyms
∞
1.0
A row of words on a page, for example in an ad
9
6.8
A clear line or limit that shows the difference between things
8
4.1
A clear border between two ideas, groups, or situations
A very unstable situation that can quickly become much worse or better after a small change
Antonyms
How Subtle
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'a very subtle distinction' is directly derivable from combining 'fine' (delicate, subtle) with 'line' (a division or boundary): the image of a narrow boundary maps straightforwardly to a subtle difference. This compositional metaphor is common across languages and follows ordinary English usage, so a B1 learner who knows the constituents is likely to infer the MWE meaning.
Etymology
The noun fine line comes from the image of a very thin line that just separates two areas, so the things on each side are almost the same. That's why people use fine line to mean a 'very small difference' between two close ideas.