borderline

«borderline» in Mova's school dictionary: Only just on one side of a line between two groups or… — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples.

part of speech

adjective (borderline); noun (a borderline, borderlines)

meaning for a pupil

1) (adjective) Only just on one side of a line between two groups or results, so it is hard to decide which: a borderline pass. tree →

2) (noun) A line that marks a border. tree →

3) (medicine) Close to being an illness or problem but not quite. tree →

sense in the lessons

In school, a borderline mark is just at the pass mark, so the teacher must decide. In everyday life, «that's borderline rude» means almost rude. In health, «borderline high blood pressure».

examples

• His test score was borderline, so he might need to retake it. tree →
• That joke was borderline mean. tree →
• She was a borderline case for the team. tree →
• The doctor said Grandad's sugar levels are borderline. tree →
• Draw a borderline between the two fields. tree →

note

In maths terms, borderline means very close to the cut-off number: if the pass mark is 50 and you get 49 or 51, that's borderline. One word.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «borderline» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.