fine line

plural fine lines

1. idiomaticA difference, albeit vague and difficult to discern.

   There's a fine line between fishing and just standing on the shore like an idiot.

   1991, Steven Wright, Hysteria

   3 more examples

   "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?"

   2005 June 20, Steve Rose, quoting Terry Hill, “The men continuing Ove Arup's architectural vision”, in The Guardian

   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".

   2008 May 16, Katie Allen, “A fine line”, in The Guardian

   Harvesting Easter eggs is now integral to our consumption of entertainment. But there’s a fine line between perceptiveness and paranoia.

   2023 January 13, Nick Haramis, “When Did We All Become Pop Culture Detectives?”, in The New York Times, →ISSN

   Antonyms: bright line