lay on the line
Idioms-
Make ready for payment, as in They laid hundreds of thousands of dollars on the line to develop the new software . [c. 1900]
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lay it on the line . Speak frankly and firmly, make something clear. For example, The professor laid it on the line: either hand in a term paper or fail the course . [c. 1920]
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Put something at risk, as in The troops sent overseas were laying their lives on the line . [Mid-1900s]
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
"Catch-22 has made me feel differently about what I lay on the line and what I do with my money too," Nichols says.
From Time Magazine Archive
Most unhappily for itself Byzantium lay on the line of division between the eastern provinces, where Pescennius Niger had been proclaimed, and the Illyrian provinces, where Severus had assumed the imperial style.
From The Byzantine Empire by Oman, Charles William Chadwick
The policy of the Corning Foundation is to demand something very definite in return for the money they lay on the line.
From Cubs of the Wolf by Jones, Raymond F.
Stafford county would be full of Nicholson's militia, and Lawrence's strong hand lay on the line of the Borders.
From Salute to Adventurers by Buchan, John
Patna lay on the line of Law's retreat, and, as we shall see, he was joined by the second and other subordinate officers of that Factory.
From Three Frenchmen in Bengal The Commercial Ruin of the French Settlements in 1757 by Hill, S. C. (Samuel Charles)
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
