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borderline

[bawr-der-lahyn]
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adjective
  1. on or near a border or boundary.
  2. uncertain; indeterminate; debatable: not an alcoholic, but a borderline case.
  3. not quite meeting accepted, expected, or average standards.
  4. approaching bad taste or obscenity: He made several borderline remarks that offended them.
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noun
  1. a person suffering from borderline personality.
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Origin of borderline

First recorded in 1865–70; border + line1

Synonyms

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3. marginal, problematic, uncertain, doubtful.
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Related Words

marginalopenambiguousambivalentdoubtfulequivocalindecisiveindefiniteindeterminateproblematicuncertainunclearundecidedunsettleddubitable

Examples from the Web for borderline

Contemporary Examples

Historical Examples

  • It was so poignant a sensation that it crossed the borderline into pain.

    The Ideal

    Stanley Grauman Weinbaum

  • Between prescience and imagination the borderline is ill defined.

  • Why had she ventured back on to the borderline of this life that had once been hers?

    To Love

    Margaret Peterson

  • The old man was upon that borderline between the living and the dead.

  • Going from Stirling to Crieff we crossed the borderline of the Highlands.

    The Heather-Moon

    C. N. Williamson and A. M. Williamson

British Dictionary definitions for borderline

borderline

noun
  1. a border; dividing line; line of demarcation
  2. an indeterminate position between two conditions or qualitiesthe borderline between friendship and love
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adjective
  1. on the edge of one category and verging on anothera borderline failure in the exam
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Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for borderline

n.

1869, "strip of land along a frontier," from border (n.) + line (n.). As an adjective meaning "verging on" it is attested from 1907, originally in medical jargon.

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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper