step out of line

present singular third person steps out of line · participle present stepping out of line · participle past stepped out of line · past stepped out of line

1. figurativelyTo break the rules of society.

   It starts when you're always afraid / Step out of line, the man come and take you away

   1966 December, Stephen Stills, “For What It's Worth”performed by Buffalo Springfield

   3 more examples

   By recalling the lynching and imagining that as the “rightful” place for black men who step out of line, Jesse, the sheriff, can collect his nerves sufficiently to confront the demonstrators

   2009, Trudier Harris, The Scary Mason-Dixon Line: African American Writers and the South, LSU Press, →ISBN

   If you step out of line and indulge in immoral acts, you're breaking the contract with your fellow citizens.

   2012, Henry Jacoby, Game of Thrones and Philosophy: Logic Cuts Deeper Than Swords, John Wiley & Sons, →ISBN, page 176

   We have been conditioned from early childhood to be afraid; if we step out of line we will not be accepted.

   2013, Chris Hamilton, On the Path to Enlightenment, Balboa Press, →ISBN, page 65