colour inside the lines

A form of color inside the lines — To behave conventionally, to follow the rules.

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Meanings

verbcolour inside the lines (third-person singular simple present colours inside the lines, present participle colouring inside the lines, simple past and past participle coloured inside the lines)

present singular third person colours inside the lines · participle present colouring inside the lines · participle past coloured inside the lines · past coloured inside the lines

  1. alternativeAlternative form of color inside the lines.

    “How will we be insured against being arrested?” Francine was clearly not finished with this topic. “You know that I don't always colour inside the lines.

    2013, Estelle Ryan, The Dante Connection (Book 2): A Genevieve Lenard Novel
    2 more examples

    I guess maybe it's because Al is more of a think inside the box type of guy. For Al you had to colour inside the lines. Different was too much for him but still that was uncalled for even for him.

    2012, Timothy Parrant, Mary's Never War, →ISBN

    In all of these cases, the explicit goal is to ensure that children and teenagers will colour inside the lines, that their behaviour will stay within boundaries set by parents, educators, regulators, policy makers and/or technology developers.

    2014, Simone van der Hof, Bibi van den Berg, Bart Schermer, Minding Minors Wandering the Web: Regulating Online Child Safety
Cite this entry
APA

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

MLA

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

Chicago

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

Source: colour inside the lines on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.