Meaning of color outside the lines | Babel Free

Definitions

1. To behave in creative or unconventional ways, to break the rules.
   intransitive
2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see color, outside, lines.

Examples

“As one American problem-solving court judge put it: “We are the judges who get to color outside the lines.””

“It comes from the fact that skaters are more likely, as you say, to color outside the lines, and that inclination frightens and confuses most people and institutions.”

“For most of my life, I've watched my mother resist the urge to color outside the lines. Not because she didn't want to do it, but because some part of her wasn't free enough.”

CEFR level