toe the line = push the limits

Laurence Horn laurence.horn at YALE.EDU
Thu May 17 00:03:47 UTC 2012


On May 16, 2012, at 7:19 PM, Wilson Gray wrote:

> On Wed, May 16, 2012 at 9:12 AM, Amy West <medievalist at w-sts.com> wrote:
>> This is not the first time that I've noticed the use of "toe the line"
>> to mean something along the lines of "push the limits of":
>
> Unfortunately, this *is* the first time that I've noticed this use.
> And, since I'm only in my middle seventies, I'll probably live long
> enough to see it become commonplace. Besides, if Republicans can
> re-interpret _poor_ to mean "rich," why not this mirror-image reading?
>
> OTOH, I'm happy for St. Hildegard, my preference among the several
> patron-saints of headache-sufferers, since I've visited both Bingen
> and its twin-town, Bingerbrueck, on several occasions..
> --
I would think she'd also be the patron saint of Gregorian chants as well, and deservedly so.

LH

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