giving someone line

Verb

give someone line (third-person singular simple present gives someone line, present participle giving someone line, simple past gave someone line, past participle given someone line)

1. To unreel more fishing line so that a hooked fish has more freedom to tire itself out.
   • Give him LINE, boy (as the trout rushed down into the shallows); into the water, boy! the line's nearly run out; it's nowhere up to your knees. Watch him! draw the line up; gently! give him line; give him line—thought so! —I feared so, ' as the line, becoming entangled from drawing it up, snapped...1862, Cyril Thornton, Conyers Lea
2. (dated, idiomatic) To allow a person more or less liberty until it is convenient to stop or check him/her.