toe the line

Idioms and Phrases

Also, toe the mark . Meet a standard, abide by the rules, as in The new director will make us toe the line, I'm sure , or At daycare Brian has to toe the mark, but at home his mother's quite lenient . This idiom refers to runners in a race placing their toes on the starting line and not moving until the starting signal. Its figurative use dates from the early 1800s.