walk in straight lines

present singular third person walks in straight lines · participle present walking in straight lines · participle past walked in straight lines · past walked in straight lines

1. To adhere to a plan, protocol, or train of thought without any deviation or distraction; to stick to the straight and narrow.

   Josh Navidi says his dad, Hedy, is a bit nuts, though he means it in the nicest way. Some walk in straight lines, Hedayat Rajai Navidi likes to go off on a tangent.

   2017 December 31, David Walsh, “Josh Navidi: 'I have never spoken highly of myself and I never will — it's just not me'”, in The Times

   3 more examples

   "As I have mentioned some of the modern miracles of science and industry," he went on, "you have asked me how men ever managed to achieve them. This anecdote is my answer. . . . They walked in straight lines. . . . Each man had his 'pine tree' in the distance — his goal."

   1923, American Magazine - Volume 96, page 16

   'Our established models of the public sphere are deeply rooted in a commitment to rational argument,' notes Graham Murdock (1999: 14), 'But images do not walk in straight lines. They do not wait to take turns. They work by association, detonating a collision of connotations.

   2012, Jonathan Gray, Watching with The Simpsons: Television, Parody, and Intertextuality, →ISBN

   Macaulay Culkin clean and sober is a good thing. He's walking in straight lines. He's not buckled over in pain and/or withdraws. Dare I say it, has Macaulay turned a new leaf?

   2013 January 13, Jeanne Adams, “Macaulay Culkin Clean And Sober Looking For Once, Trying To Win Mila Kunis Back?”, in Celebrity Dirty Laundry

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

   When the principal installed typical no-excuses rules—mandates that students walk in straight lines between rooms or sit in silence if a teacher raises two fingers, for example—the atmosphere of the school apparently calmed and test scores went up.

   2015 March 17, Carly Berwick, “Zeroing out Zero Tolerance”, in The Atlantic