"step on someone's lines" meaning in English

See step on someone's lines in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Verb

Forms: step on lines [canonical]
Head templates: {{head|en|verb|head=step on (someone's) lines}} step on (someone's) lines
  1. To interfere with someone's role, as in a performance, by interfering with their scripted or intended speech. Categories (topical): Theater Related terms: upstage

Download JSON data for step on someone's lines meaning in English (3.0kB)

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      "form": "step on lines",
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      "args": {
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        "2": "verb",
        "head": "step on (someone's) lines"
      },
      "expansion": "step on (someone's) lines",
      "name": "head"
    }
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  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
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          "orig": "en:Theater",
          "parents": [
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            "Entertainment",
            "Culture",
            "Society",
            "All topics",
            "Fundamental"
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          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "The person who introduced me stepped on my lines by giving a long summary, including all the good anecdotes."
        },
        {
          "ref": "1986, Carol Addison Takacs, Enjoy Your Gifted Child, page 51",
          "text": "... interrupting often takes place when someone else in the group is telling a joke and the bright youngster blurts out the punch line — not because he has heard the joke before but because he sees what is coming and finds it funny. And so, out it tumbles and he has \"stepped on my lines\" and spoiled the joke for the teller.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1994, Hearings Before and Special Reports Made by Committee on Armed Services of the House of Representatives on Subjects Affecting the Naval and Military Establishments, Contributor United States. Congress. House. Committee on Armed Services, page 71",
          "text": "Mr. KYL. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. […] do you want to take any additional testimony before we get to questioning? I have read the statements. / Mr. SKELTON. I think, as I understand it, I was told that the other gentlemen were here to answer questions. / Mr. KYL. Fine. I didn't want to step on your lines there, but I have read the statements and find them to be good and cooperative.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2020, Tom Lisanti, Carol Lynley: Her Film & TV Career in Thrillers, Fantasy & ...",
          "text": "Carol was unhappy with Buttons mostly because he had the habit of stepping on her lines, intentionally or not. It throws actors off when another begins speaking their lines before they have finished saying their dialog and it diminishes their part.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To interfere with someone's role, as in a performance, by interfering with their scripted or intended speech."
      ],
      "id": "en-step_on_someone's_lines-en-verb-ncFgxTmW",
      "related": [
        {
          "word": "upstage"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "step on someone's lines"
}
{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "step on lines",
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    {
      "args": {
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      },
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      "name": "head"
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  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "upstage"
    }
  ],
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        "en:Theater"
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      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "The person who introduced me stepped on my lines by giving a long summary, including all the good anecdotes."
        },
        {
          "ref": "1986, Carol Addison Takacs, Enjoy Your Gifted Child, page 51",
          "text": "... interrupting often takes place when someone else in the group is telling a joke and the bright youngster blurts out the punch line — not because he has heard the joke before but because he sees what is coming and finds it funny. And so, out it tumbles and he has \"stepped on my lines\" and spoiled the joke for the teller.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1994, Hearings Before and Special Reports Made by Committee on Armed Services of the House of Representatives on Subjects Affecting the Naval and Military Establishments, Contributor United States. Congress. House. Committee on Armed Services, page 71",
          "text": "Mr. KYL. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. […] do you want to take any additional testimony before we get to questioning? I have read the statements. / Mr. SKELTON. I think, as I understand it, I was told that the other gentlemen were here to answer questions. / Mr. KYL. Fine. I didn't want to step on your lines there, but I have read the statements and find them to be good and cooperative.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2020, Tom Lisanti, Carol Lynley: Her Film & TV Career in Thrillers, Fantasy & ...",
          "text": "Carol was unhappy with Buttons mostly because he had the habit of stepping on her lines, intentionally or not. It throws actors off when another begins speaking their lines before they have finished saying their dialog and it diminishes their part.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To interfere with someone's role, as in a performance, by interfering with their scripted or intended speech."
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "step on someone's lines"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-03 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-05-02 using wiktextract (f4fd8c9 and c9440ce). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.