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Dictionary

Words, grammatical forms and meanings linked to the ontology.

color outside the lines en · VERB

Etymology

A reference to children's coloring books, which contain line drawings to be colored in.

Meanings

  1. (intransitive) To behave in creative or unconventional ways, to break the rules.
    • It comes from the fact that skaters are more likely, as you say, to color outside the lines, and that inclination frightens and confuses most people and institutions. 2007, Bret Anthony Johnston, Corpus Christi: Stories:
    • As one American problem-solving court judge put it: “We are the judges who get to color outside the lines.” 2009, James L. Nolan Jr, Legal Accents, Legal Borrowing: The International Problem-Solving Court Movement:
    • For most of my life, I've watched my mother resist the urge to color outside the lines. Not because she didn't want to do it, but because some part of her wasn't free enough. 2008, Matthew Paul Turner, Churched: One Kid's Journey Toward God Despite a Holy Mess:
  2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see color, outside, lines.

Forms

SpellingFeaturesLabelsSource
colors outside the lines Number=Sing, Person=3, Tense=Pres lexicographic
coloring outside the lines Tense=Pres, VerbForm=Part lexicographic
colored outside the lines Tense=Past, VerbForm=Part lexicographic
colored outside the lines Tense=Past lexicographic