walk a straight line

present singular third person walks a straight line · participle present walking a straight line · participle past walked a straight line · past walked a straight line

1. To behave in a proper and lawful manner; to obey the rules and expectations of society.

   He expected a felonious client, rewarded with four and a quarter million instead of jail time, to be grateful and thereafter to walk a straight line.

   2012, Dean Koontz, From the Corner of his Eye, →ISBN

   2 more examples

   What if your mate forgives you and your broken promise? I know we've all heard statements from our mates such as: "Baby, don't worry about it. I forgive you. Let'x move on!” Well, here's the question, should we accept this statement as the truth; or should we keep in the back of our minds that the damage is already done? Here's when you must begin to walk a straight line continuously.

   2009, Johnnie Lee Behlin III, Why: A Guideline for Relationships (Ways of Women/Minds of Men), →ISBN

   He wanted to do the right thing. He was trying his hardest to walk a straight line and stay out of the game, but nobody was willing to give him a break.

   2014, Ashley Jaquavis, The Trophy Wife, →ISBN

2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see walk, straight, line.

   You've read about this phenomenon, how people who are loast in the woods believe they are walking a straight line sometimes will keep veering off in one direction and eventually walk in a circle that brings them very close to where they started.

   2008, David Lozell Martin, Losing Everything, →ISBN, page 10