borderline

About 2.63 uses per million words.

Meaning

1. adjective Nearly; not clearly on one side or the other of a border or boundary, ambiguous.

   I would rather hire a talented layman than a university graduate with borderline qualifications.

2. adjective Of questionable taste or acceptability; approaching bad taste.

   Your borderline remarks about my aunt’s dress destroyed my evening.

3. adjective Exhibiting or characteristic of borderline personality disorder.
4. adverb Nearly; not entirely but nevertheless to a great extent.

   He is borderline hypoglycemic and needs to monitor his sugar intake.

5. noun A boundary or accepted division; a border.

   She lives on the borderline between reality and madness.

6. noun Ellipsis of borderline personality disorder.
7. noun A person who has borderline personality disorder.
8. verb To border, or border on; to be physically close or conceptually akin to.

Similar words

delimitation minimal minimum border marginal boundary line distinction separating limited limitation

Often followed by

personality between cases patients of case and patient or

Word family

borderlines