borderline

[bawr-der-lahyn]

See more synonyms for borderline on Thesaurus.com

adjective

on or near a border or boundary.
uncertain; indeterminate; debatable: not an alcoholic, but a borderline case.
not quite meeting accepted, expected, or average standards.

approaching bad taste or obscenity: He made several borderline remarks that offended them.

noun

a person suffering from borderline personality.

Origin of borderline

First recorded in 1865–70; border + line¹

Synonyms for borderline

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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 for borderline

marginal, open, ambiguous, ambivalent, doubtful, equivocal, indecisive, indefinite, indeterminate, problematic, uncertain, unclear, undecided, unsettled, dubitable

Examples from the Web for borderline

Contemporary Examples of borderline

Vasquez, who has borderline ID, was exonerated in 1989, four years after his conviction.
How the U.S. Justice System Screws Prisoners with Disabilities
Elizabeth Picciuto
December 16, 2014
Family and friends describe her as highly dedicated to her job, if not borderline workaholic.
The Mystery Death Of A Female Firefighter
Christopher Moraff
December 13, 2014
The pair carried on their “work” relationship as borderline transients.
The Navy ‘Hero’ Who Pimped an HIV-Positive Teen
M.L. Nestel
December 11, 2014
Their relationships with each other range from conciliatory to borderline antagonistic.
Welcome to Assadville, USA
Christopher Moraff
November 11, 2014
Their borderline baseline distaste for a person they did not know had become a sport, and the off season was finally over.
Do We Still Hate Anne Hathaway?
Kevin Fallon
November 5, 2014

Historical Examples of borderline

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.
The Orchard of Tears
Sax Rohmer
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.
The Lone Ranger Rides
Fran Striker
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

a border; dividing line; line of demarcation
an indeterminate position between two conditions or qualitiesthe borderline between friendship and love

adjective

on the edge of one category and verging on anothera borderline failure in the exam

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

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.