fine line
English
editPronunciation
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Noun
editfine line (plural fine lines)
- (idiomatic) A difference, albeit vague and difficult to discern.
- Antonym: bright line
- 1991, Steven Wright, Hysteria:
- There's a fine line between fishing and just standing on the shore like an idiot.
- 2005 June 20, Steve Rose, quoting Terry Hill, “The men continuing Ove Arup's architectural vision”, in The Guardian[1]:
- "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?"
- 2008 May 16, Katie Allen, “A fine line”, in The Guardian[2]:
- 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".