Meanings
- idiomaticFurther along, in terms of time or progress.
They decided to save money by using the cheapest components available, but down the line they ran into problems with reliability.
2 more examples
Southgate's side cast off the clouds of dread that have come over England in penalty shootouts in the past, a psychological lift that may yet help them further down the line.
2018 July 3, Phil McNulty, “Colombia 1 - 1 England”, in BBC SportThe person said one of the reasons the Chinese had been so pliant in development of a joint position on AI governance was that “playing nice” and acting as a “responsible partner” could help foster conversations about relaxation of US trade barriers later down the line.
2023 November 4, Madhumita Murgia, Anna Gross, Cristina Criddle, “Summit exposes tensions over AI development despite emollient Chinese tone”, in FT Weekend, London: The Financial Times Ltd., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 12Synonyms: down the road, down the track
Synonyms & antonyms
prepositional phraseFurther along, in terms of time or progress.
Cite this entry
down the line. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/down%20the%20line
“down the line.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/down%20the%20line. Accessed November 5, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “down the line,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/down%20the%20line.
Source: down the line on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.