Though the line did not actually divide North and South, it became the symbolic division between free states and slave states. Today, it still stands for the boundary between northern and southern states.
An Americanism dating back to 1770–80
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Illinois and not the Deep South became “Heat’s” location because Poitier refused to film south of the Mason-Dixon line.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 22, 2024
Of the slowest states, only Illinois is above the Mason-Dixon line.
From Washington Times ● Jan. 25, 2023
"Below the Mason-Dixon line . . . We don't have just one of two ways of cooking succulent sweet potatoes," Schuyler wrote.
From Salon ● Nov. 22, 2022
Dixie is thought to be a reference to the Mason-Dixon line, although the origins of the term are still debated by historians.
From New York Times ● Jan. 20, 2020
On the map, the division line between slave and non-slave societies occurs in Virginia, broadly anticipating the Mason-Dixon line that later split slave states from free.
From "1491" by Charles C. Mann
My parents insisted I apply to colleges below the Mason-Dixon Line and on the east side of Texas.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 20, 2026
That prompted the Maryland Legislature to pass a public accommodations law in 1963 banning discrimination in hotels and restaurants, becoming the first state below the Mason-Dixon Line to do so.
From Seattle Times ● Jun. 7, 2023
They are consumed with gusto and discrimination at nearly every party you might attend south of the Mason-Dixon Line, and although oblong and a bit thicker, they're sort of the grown-up version of a Cheez-It.
From Salon ● Jan. 22, 2023
Landrieu speaks often with anecdotes and metaphors, the New Orleans accent offering a below the Mason-Dixon Line bonhomie to the audience.
From Washington Times ● Nov. 1, 2022
But mainly it’s the way they’re so damned self-important, like they’d single-handedly stopped the dead at the Mason-Dixon Line or some nonsense.
From "Dread Nation" by Justina Ireland
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.
