line up

present singular third person lines up · participle present lining up · participle past lined up · past lined up

1. idiomaticengineeringTo align; to put in alignment; to put in correct adjustment for smooth running.
2. idiomatictransitiveTo put things in a line.
   1. colloquialidiomatictransitiveTo shape cocaine powder into one or more lines.
3. idiomaticintransitiveTo get into a line; especially, so as to wait one's turn.

   For the steam services, passengers with reserved seats are assembled behind the appropriate notice boards in the centre cab road, which is barred to motor traffic on summer Saturdays. Unreserved passengers line up behind other boards, which merely display destinations and not departure times.

   1962 April, J. N. Faulkner, “Summer Saturday at Waterloo”, in Modern Railways, page 263

   Synonyms: queue up

4. idiomaticintransitivehobbiesTo start a game in a certain position on the playing field.

   The Nigerian forward lined up on the left of a front three with Keane in the middle and Frederic Piquionne on the right, and it was from Keane's lay-off that the former Portsmouth striker curled a shot straight at Ben Foster on 20 minutes.

   2011 February 6, Alistair Magowan, “West Ham 0 - 1 Birmingham”, in BBC

5. idiomaticTo make arrangements for an event.

   A number of famous actors and musicians have been lined up for the celebrations.

   1 more example

   OK, with this guy being so great, the best offensive lineman in football, we lined up an interview. We showed up at Redskin Park in suburban Washington, D.C., near Dulles Airport, on a beautiful morning for a chat with this Jim Lachey.

   1992 October, Steve Buckley, “Boss Hog: Jim Lachey is the best offensive lineman in football playing on the best team in football”, in Sport, volume 83, number 10, →ISSN, page 63

6. idiomaticTo support a group or movement.

   The final vote between Hollande and Sarkozy now depends on a delicate balance of how France's total of rightwing and leftwing voters line up.

   2012 April 23, Angelique Chrisafis, “François Hollande on top but far right scores record result in French election”, in the Guardian

7. idiomaticintransitiveTo agree or correspond.

   He claimed Shaylene’s remains were hidden in a rural wooded area near Union City, along the border dividing Ohio and Indiana. This lined up nicely with the investigators’ running theory, so they deployed cadaver dog units and forensic teams to excavate the Union City border site.

   2026 August 6, Nicholas Muhoro, “An Ohio Teen Vanished During a One-Mile Drive in 1994. Her Locked Car Was Found Hours Later”, in Skip Boring, archived from the original on 06 Aug 2026

   1 more example

   Fury Road is a long way away from being a political tract, but it is a story about heroic women overcoming the influence of a predatory, proprietary, evil man, and I do think that matters. In any case, I’ve been doing my best to enjoy politically repellant action movies for my entire life, and I can’t even tell you how great it is that my favorite action movie of all time happens to have ideas about life that line up with my own. That’s one of Fury Road’s many miracles.

   2017 December 1, Tom Breihan, “Mad Max: Fury Road might already be the best action movie ever made”, in The Onion AV Club

8. idiomaticrailwaysTo have switches set so the train is capable of moving along its correct route.

plural line ups

1. idiomaticnonstandardNonstandard spelling of lineup.
2. idiomaticA haircut where the front region of a person's hair is shaved to form a crisp line between their hair and the shaved region, sometimes coordinated to create a smooth transition between their hair and beard.