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

Residents remembered some shouting at early HOA meetings, but the board started to meet less often and lay out more ground rules.

From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 11, 2026

"I think it gets some basic ground rules in place but of course, it does depend on the attitude of the tech platforms adopting the practical guidance put forward," she said.

From BBC • Nov. 25, 2025

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

Insomnia Con’s grand prize, I want to go over some basic info and ground rules first.

From "When Dimple Met Rishi" by Sandhya Menon