draw a line in the sand

draw a line in the sand
a) To provide a test of commitment to a cause that carries a high risk. In 1836, [ William B. Travis], commending the defenders of the Alamo, drew a line in the sand and asked those willing to remain and defend the Alamo to their deaths, to step across.

After having been on the deserted island for the past three months, the survivors were getting angry with each other and decided to draw a line in the sand to indicate where the first group and the second group could live.

b) To create an artificial boundary between two places to divide two or more people from each other.

We often talk about a drawing a line in the sand between freedom of speech and defamation.


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  • draw a line in the sand — If you draw a line in the sand, you establish a limit beyond which things will be unacceptable …   The small dictionary of idiomes

  • draw a line in the sand —    If you draw a line in the sand, you establish a limit beyond which things will be unacceptable.   (Dorking School Dictionary)    ***    If you draw a line in the sand, you establish a limit beyond which a certain situation or activity will not …   English Idioms & idiomatic expressions

  • draw a line in the sand — to say that a particular idea or activity will not be supported or accepted. The president has drawn a line in the sand, which means that if the foreign troops are not removed, they will be attacked. Etymology: based on the idea of literally… …   New idioms dictionary

  • Line in the Sand Match — Round 11, 2004 Hawthorn v Essendon Hawthorn Essendon …   Wikipedia

  • draw a line in the sand — idi to set a limit; allow to go up to a point but no further …   From formal English to slang

  • a line in the sand — (draw) a line in the sand (state that one has reached) a point beyond which one will not go …   Useful english dictionary

  • line — In Fanny Burney s Cecilia (1782) the question is asked Where, then, do you draw the line?, meaning how far can a person expect to be independent. The image of drawing lines has fed English idiom for several centuries, extending to the more… …   Modern English usage

  • draw — [c]/drɔ / (say draw) verb (drew /dru / (say drooh), drawn, drawing) –verb (t) 1. (sometimes followed by along, away, in, out …  

  • line — I. /laɪn / (say luyn) noun 1. a mark or stroke long in proportion to its breadth, made with a pen, pencil, tool, etc., on a surface. 2. something resembling a traced line, as a band of colour, a seam, a furrow, etc.: lines of stratification in… …  

  • sand — sandable, adj. sandless, adj. sandlike, adj. /sand/, n. 1. the more or less fine debris of rocks, consisting of small, loose grains, often of quartz. 2. Usually, sands. a tract or region composed principally of sand. 3. the sand or a grain of… …   Universalium

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