color outside the lines

verb

To behave in creative or unconventional ways, to break the rules.

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Meanings

verbcolor outside the lines (third-person singular simple present colors outside the lines, present participle coloring outside the lines, simple past and past participle colored outside the lines)

present singular third person colors outside the lines · participle present coloring outside the lines · participle past colored outside the lines · past colored outside the lines

  1. intransitiveTo behave in creative or unconventional ways, to break the rules.

    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
    2 more examples

    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

    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.

Origin

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

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

color outside the lines. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/color%20outside%20the%20lines

MLA

“color outside the lines.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/color%20outside%20the%20lines. Accessed November 5, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “color outside the lines,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/color%20outside%20the%20lines.

Source: color outside the lines on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.