Word.ws English Dictionary

off the reservation

off the reservation prepositional phrase: violating rules or decorum; out of bounds.

Prepositional phrase

  1. (idiomatic) Violating rules or decorum; out of bounds.
    Synonyms:
    beyond the pale
  2. (US) Having broken with one's party or group, usually temporarily.
    • While politicians remained blackballed on opening night, the Clintonites' search for "real people" was not limited to the obscure. Thomason floated Billy Graham's name, but Hillary worried that he might get off the reservation on abortion.1999, Martin Plissner, The Control Room: How Television Calls the Shots in Presidential Elections

Synonyms of off the reservation

Origin of off the reservation

From go off the reservation.

Questions about off the reservation

What does off the reservation mean?
Off the reservation means violating rules or decorum; out of bounds.
What part of speech is off the reservation?
Off the reservation is a prepositional phrase.

Words near off the reservation in the dictionary

  1. off the plan
  2. off the radar
  3. off the radio
  4. off the rails
  5. off the record
  6. off the reservation
  7. off the rip
  8. off the scale
  9. off the shelf
  10. off the shits
  11. off the table

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: off the reservation (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-off the reservation.ogg.

Cite this entry: “off the reservation.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/off_the_reservation. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.