sail close to the wind

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Idioms and Phrases

Be on the verge of doing something illegal or improper, as in She was sailing pretty close to the wind when she called him a liar . This term alludes to the danger incurred when literally sailing too close to (that is, in the direction of) the wind. Its figurative use dates from the first half of the 1800s.

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April 19, 2024tortuous

[tawr-choo-uhs ]

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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

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