- on or near a border or boundary.
- having an uncertain, indeterminate, or debatable status: He was a borderline case for admission to the program—please encourage him to apply again next year.
- not quite meeting accepted, expected, or average standards: Discover specific how-to strategies for turning a borderline student into a confident achiever.
- approaching bad taste or obscenity: He made several borderline remarks that offended them.
- Also bor·der line.
- a border or boundary: The town of Tiverton, Rhode Island, rests on the once-disputed Massachusetts borderline.
- a notional dividing line: Often the borderline between safety and toxicity is very small, and every year thousands of fish die as a consequence of chemical overdosing.
- a person with borderline personality disorder.
- a border; dividing line; line of demarcation
- an indeterminate position between two conditions or qualities
- on the edge of one category and verging on another
