within bounds
Reasonable and allowable, up to a certain point, as in It's all right to play your stereo, but please keep the volume within bounds. Like its antonym, out of bounds, this term originally referred to the boundaries of a playing area of field.
Words Nearby within bounds
The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
How to use within bounds in a sentence
Great as his interest in his subject might be, his ardor was held within bounds.
Mary Wollstonecraft | Elizabeth Robins PennellNever a branch will have to be shortened to keep it within bounds.
Amateur Gardencraft | Eben E. RexfordI noticed that he did not overstate anything, but spoke within bounds.
A Plea for Captain John Brown | Henry David ThoreauHow easy, how very easy, it is to keep this kind of friendship—friendship between a man and a woman—within bounds!
Studies in love and in terror | Marie Belloc LowndesWhen Glory has once fir'd a noble Soul, nothing can keep it within bounds.
The Memoirs of Charles-Lewis, Baron de Pollnitz, Volume I | Karl Ludwig von Pllnitz
Browse