Meaning
To set a firm limit on what one is willing to accept, tolerate, or do. It is usually followed by 'at' plus the refused behaviour, as in declining to work weekends, and it marks the point in negotiations, moral arguments, or favours beyond which someone refuses to go. Neutral; suits both everyday conversation and formal argument, and it usually collocates with 'at' plus the behaviour being refused. Regional use: General English.
Origin
This is the oldest English idiom built on the image of marking a boundary, and it is recorded from the 1760s: Merriam-Webster dates its first known use to 1766, while Michael Quinion cites an earlier example from The Public Ledger (London) of 7 February 1761, which writes of drawing the line between real Christianity and Methodism. Colourful origin stories - lines chalked for real tennis, duelling scratch lines, boxing rings - circulate, but no reliable source verifies any of them, and Quinion treats the idiom as simply formalising the ancient practice of physically marking a limit. The related elaboration 'draw a line in the sand' is much later, with the earliest example traced by Quinion to a South Dakota newspaper of July 1953.
Research Sources
References used to check this entry’s meaning, history, or documented forms.
Variants
- a line has to be drawn somewhere
- draw a line
- draw a line in the sand
- draw the line at something
- that is where I draw the line
Usage Examples
- I do not mind covering the occasional shift, but I draw the line at working every weekend.
- The regulator drew the line at hidden fees, banning them outright in the new rules.
- Fans will forgive a slow season, but selling the stadium's name is where many of them draw the line.