fine line
noun1
Idiomatic A difference, albeit vague and difficult to discern.
- There's a fine line between fishing and just standing on the shore like an idiot.1991, Steven Wright, Hysteria:
- "We're not arrogant, we're confident about what we're doing," says Hill, "But there's a fine line between them, isn't there?"2005 June 20, Steve Rose, quoting Terry Hill, “The men continuing Ove Arup's architectural vision”, in The Guardian:
2 more examples
- San Francisco songsters The Richter Scales give the world their take on the subprime meltdown in a song that advises there's also a fine line "between the theories and the facts", "between what's solid and what cracks" and "between a gain and a crippling, crushing, mortally wounding decline".2008 May 16, Katie Allen, “A fine line”, in The Guardian:
- Harvesting Easter eggs is now integral to our consumption of entertainment. But there’s a fine line between perceptiveness and paranoia.2023 January 13, Nick Haramis, “When Did We All Become Pop Culture Detectives?”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:
- Derived terms
- walk a fine line
- Related terms
- gray area