ground rules

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.

Example Sentences

“All the ground rules for 50 years are either being overturned or are at risk of being overturned.”

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My mother did not live long enough to see all this happen, but even though I broke a few ground rules, I think she would be pleased with how it all worked out.

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"And so we are doing everything that we possibly can to keep fighting. And I think we will be successful; we just need to know what the ground rules are."

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He referred to the lack of pre-bout meeting between the fighters, referee and coaches to lay down the "ground rules" for the bout.

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“There are going to be some ground rules,” he said.

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