ground rules

Idioms  

1. Basic procedures of conduct, as in The press secretary sets the ground rules for all of the President's press conferences. The term comes from baseball, where it refers to specific rules for a particular ballpark, which are based on special conditions such as a very high outfield fence or a field obstruction of some kind. It began to be transferred to more general use in the mid-1900s.

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Example Sentences

He admits he never went over the ground rules before sharing his password, and he hasn’t shared his account since.

From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 28, 2026

However, judges said their opinion, which is not binding, should not be understood as laying out any other ground rules for strike action.

From Barron's • May 21, 2026

Before you begin, you need to set ground rules, like no crosstalk or fingerpointing or bad language or namecalling etc.

From MarketWatch • Nov. 21, 2025

Barrett extols a judge’s obligation to “resolve disputes according to the ground rules that the people have prescribed,” but that responsibility is meaningless in the absence of reliable evidence.

From Slate • Sep. 5, 2025

Pattie set down some ground rules on Thursday.

From "Counting by 7s" by Holly Goldberg Sloan