Word.ws English Dictionary

crossed the line

crossed the line is the simple past and past participle of cross the line.

Meaning of cross the line

Verb

cross the line (third-person singular simple present crosses the line, present participle crossing the line, simple past and past participle crossed the line)

  1. (idiomatic) To overstep a boundary, rule, or limit; to go too far or do something unacceptable.
    • I can tolerate a lot, but they really crossed the line when they broke the equipment.
  2. To finish a race.
    Synonyms:
    go all the way
  3. To achieve completion of something.
    Synonyms:
    go all the way
  4. To cross the equator, as a vessel at sea.
  5. To film from the opposite side of an imaginary axis on set in order to view the actors from the opposite direction.

Questions about crossed the line

What is crossed the line the simple past and past participle of?
Crossed the line is the simple past and past participle of cross the line.

Words near crossed the line in the dictionary

  1. crossed someone's T
  2. crossed swords
  3. crossed that bridge when one came to it
  4. crossed the aisle
  5. crossed the floor
  6. crossed the line
  7. crossed the river
  8. crossed the Rubicon
  9. crossed the streams
  10. crossed the Styx
  11. crossed the t's and dotted the i's

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: crossed the line (page history and authors); cross the line (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: “crossed the line.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/crossed_the_line. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.