Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(drugs) morphine.

1977		L. Young et al. Recreational Drugs.
2001		ONDCP Street Terms 9: First line — Morphine.

to make an effort, to commit onself, to bet heavily on.

1950		Goldin et al. DAUL 83/2: Go down the line for. See Go to bat.
1955		B. Schulberg On the Waterfront (1964) 302: I go down the line for them and [they] still treat me like a bum.
1959		(con. 1900-29) L. Katcher Big Bankroll 327: [Rothstein] had gone heavily down the line on [presidental candidate Herbert] Hoover, certain that this was as close to a sure bet as any election bet ever was.

to understand, to know what is happening; to know about.

1915		Van Loan ‘The Spotted Sheep’ in Taking the Count 100: I’ve got a line on the very man we want.
1924		D. Hammett ‘Death on Pine Street’ in Nightmare Town (2001) 193: I have a line on a woman [...] Want to come along and talk to her with me?
1927		M.C. McPhee ‘College Sl.’ in AS III:2 131: If an individual (a ‘date’) is entertaining or interesting such terms as: ‘knows her oil,’ ‘is full of vinegar,’ ‘has a line,’ will be used in praise.
1934		Rover 13 Jan. 31: I’ve got a line on these racketeers at last.
1945		J.H. Cummings Fatal Pay-off 55: I think I’ve got a good line on where Reali was Tuesday night.
1953		S. Bellow Augie March (1996) 80: He had a line on Lollie from the beginning.
1972		E. Grogan Ringolevio 200: They didn’t have a line on Kenny but they knew Matt.
1981		G.V. Higgins Rat on Fire (1982) 77: We’ve got a pretty good line on these guys.
1986		C. Hiaasen Tourist Season (1987) 36: Remember I told you I had a line on those goofy clothes? Well, I got a sale clerk at a joint down the street who says she sold them to a skinny little Cuban guy.
2001		J. Stahl Plainclothes Naked (2002) 36: If the lazy son of a bitch didn’t have a line on diet pills, she’d have fired him at Christmas.
2003		G. Doyle Whitemare 126: I think we have a line on him. He’s Chinese and he gets his calls at a Cuban-Chinese restaurant on 8th Avenue.
2014		A.L. Colón ‘Dinner Rush’ in ThugLit Mar. [ebook] ‘[H]e got a line on some inventory. Dirt cheap, no questions’.

(US) to have access, an entrée.

1969

D. Di Prima Memoirs of a Beatnik 87: [A]n older guy named Glenn, who was a longshoreman, with a line into almost any drug one could need.

not breaking any rules, law-abiding.

1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).
1952		Lait & Mortimer USA Confidential 172: Both the CIO and the AFL have ‘bugs’ on his telephone wires to see that he stays in line.
1963		B. Hecht Gaily, Gaily 19: We visited the death cell daily, in order to keep the doomed man in line.

to behave properly.

1821		Egan Life in London (1869) 277: If you promise to ‘keep the line’ [...] you shall be admitted into the preserve.
1832		Egan Bk of Sports 3: George being a family man, and fully aware of the necessity of ‘keeping the line’.
1848		Flash Dict. in Sinks of London Laid Open.

(US) phr. to suggest that there are or will be many more of this type.

1946		W.R. Burnett Romelle 20: ‘[S]he goes around being insolent to everybody. She’ll get slapped plenty. The line is forming on the right’.
1954		Brecht & Weill trans. Blitzstein ‘Mack the Knife’ 🎵 Oh, the line forms on the right, babe / now that Macky's back in town.

a drink, esp. of brandy.

c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: Line of the old Author a Dram of Brandy.
1725		New Canting Dict. [as cit. c.1698].
1737, 1759, 1760, 1776		Bailey Universal Etym. Eng. Dict. [as cit. c.1698].
c.1750–1882		B.M. Carew Life and Adventures.
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1809		G. Andrewes Dict. Sl. and Cant.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1858		A. Mayhew Paved with Gold 256: She’s a rum ’un, and as fond of ‘a line of the old author’ (brandy) or a drop of the ‘South Sea Mountain’ (gin) as any ‘doxy’ (woman) in Stafford.
1890–1904		Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues 254/1: drink [...] leaf of the old author.

see separate entry.

(orig. US) breaking rules, unacceptable, out of the ordinary.

1929		V.W. Saul ‘Vocab. of Bums’ in AS IV:5 343: Out-o’-line — To become unmanageable; to fail in the rôle one is expected to play.
1931		D. Runyon ‘Romance in the Roaring Forties’ in Runyon on Broadway (1954) 32: He is polite to her and never gets out of line in her company.
1940		W.R. Burnett High Sierra in Four Novels (1984) 303: You’ll see [...] Get out of line and you’ll see.
1953		J. Thompson Savage Night (1991) 58: I don’t have to move very far out of line to be in trouble.
1964		P. Highsmith Two Faces of January (1988) 97: A woman liked to feel that a man cared [...] that a man would beat the hell out of her if she got out of line.
1989		Pileggi & Scorsese Goodfellas [film script] 53: You got out of line, you got whacked.
1995		J. Cameron Vinnie Got Blown Away 70: Beat your woman first time she steps out of line.
2000		M. Collins Keepers of Truth 102: I said, ‘I was out of line.’.
2010		A. Steinberg Running the Books 170: If they caught you out of line, man, they’d fuck you up.

1. drunk.

1883		Bristol Magpie 18 Jan. 6/2: Reclining [...] with all the dignity of a drunken man [...] Got over the line, last night?
1922		Joyce Ulysses 169: - And is that a fact? Decent quiet man he is. I often saw him in here and I never once saw him, you know, over the line.

2. to excess.

1918

Kia Ora Coo-ee 15 Apr. 5/1: All might have been well if the fellows had only used moderation, but one day they fairly went over the line.

see under sweat v.²

(UK Und.) awaiting execution by hanging.

c.1850

Duncombe New and Improved Flash Dict.

wait a minute!

1934		Wodehouse Right Ho, Jeeves 1: Hold the line a minute. I’ve gone off the rails.
1930		‘Leslie Charteris’ Enter the Saint 85: You think you’re going to find out [...] whether I’ve arranged for a squeal to the police [...] Hold the line while I laugh!