Word.ws English Dictionary

between the lines

between the lines prepositional phrase: by implication or way of inference; indirectly.

Prepositional phrase

  1. By implication or way of inference; indirectly.
    • The lines give us the letters, but we have to look ‘between the lines’ for the spirit and the intention.1881, “On Reading between the Lines”, in London Society, volume XXXIX, London: William Clowes and Sons, page 531
    • Chinese have to live this critical assessment. If they read about it at all, it's between the lines.1978 April 9, Joseph Lelyveld, “China Watch”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 20 Dec 2025

between the lines meaning in Urdu

between the lines in Urdu

between the lines
بین السطور bainassutūr

Examples of between the lines in a sentence

  • Much of gay history over the years and centuries has been written between the lines.1981 December 5, Rudy Grillo, “Gay Moments in Straight Music”, in Gay Community News, volume 9, number 20, page 9:
  • You would always have a sense, wouldn’t you, of what was at least being said between the lines and have a good idea as to how long the pause was going to be.2020 May 19, Sean Gentille, Josh Yohe, and Rob Rossi, quoting Mike Emrick, “Doc Emrick on empty arenas, Mike Lange and his first ‘event of...

Origin of between the lines

Probably from glosses and commentaries which were written between the lines and provided the reader with additional information not explicitly stated in the text.

Words formed from between the lines

Questions about between the lines

What does between the lines mean?
Between the lines means by implication or way of inference; indirectly.
What is between the lines in Urdu?
Between the lines in Urdu is بین السطور (bainassutūr). See Between the lines meaning in Urdu.
How do you use between the lines in a sentence?
Much of gay history over the years and centuries has been written between the lines.
What part of speech is between the lines?
Between the lines is a prepositional phrase.

Words near between the lines in the dictionary

  1. between Scylla and Charybdis
  2. between the devil and the deep blue sea
  3. between the ears
  4. between the hammer and the anvil
  5. between the jigs and the reels
  6. between the lines
  7. between the pegs
  8. between the pipes
  9. between the sheets
  10. between the sticks
  11. between time

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: between the lines (page history and authors); بین السطور (Urdu) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “between the lines.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/between_the_lines. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.