borderline

border +‎ line

borderline (comparative more borderline, superlative most borderline)

1. 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. Showing bad taste.

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

3. Exhibiting borderline personality disorder.
   • 2003 December 8, Leslie Atkinson; Research Scientist at the Psychiatry Research Unit Susan Goldberg; Susan Goldberg, Attachment Issues in Psychopathology and Intervention, Routledge, →ISBN, page 192:

     She clearly has borderline and narcissistic features and she meets the criteria for a rapid cycling bipolar disorder, as well as for a generalized anxiety disorder. She has a severe binge eating disorder and has gained 65 pounds since […]

• borderline case
• borderline personality disorder
• borderliner

borderline (not comparable)

1. Nearly; not entirely but nevertheless to a great extent.

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

   I expected him to be super boring but he was actually borderline funny!

borderline (plural borderlines)

1. (countable) A boundary or accepted division; a border.

   She lives on the borderline between reality and madness.

2. (uncountable) Short for borderline personality disorder.
   • 2001 July 23, Howard S. Friedman, The Disorders: Specialty Articles from the Encyclopedia of Mental Health, Gulf Professional Publishing, →ISBN, page 109:

     The four overlapping concepts of borderline were as follows : (1) A residual model […] (2) An affective disorder model, which considered BPD as an affective spectrum illness displaying prominent […]

   • 2014 December 16, Amber Zufelt, Chasing Butterflies: The Ultimate Guide to Surviving Borderline Personality Disorder, Lulu.com, →ISBN, page 40:

     [...] you should consider it! People with Borderline are especially affected by the unconditional affection parenting a pet can provide.

   • 2011 November 8, Paula K. Lundberg-Love; Kevin L. Nadal; Michele A. Paludi, Women and Mental Disorders [4 volumes], ABC-CLIO, →ISBN, page 155:

     Subsequent conceptualizations of borderline were based on important contributions from psychoanalysts, […] As a result of its inclusion, appearing as “borderline personality disorder,” the construct gained legitimacy […]

3. (countable) An individual who has borderline personality disorder.
   • 1995, Eugene E. Levitt; Edward Earl Gotts, The Clinical Application of MMPI Special Scales, page 80:

     As an example of their affective profile, borderlines are set apart from passive aggressives by having more marked social anxiety […] and greater sensitivity […]

borderline (third-person singular simple present borderlines, present participle borderlining, simple past and past participle borderlined)

1. (transitive) To border, or border on; to be physically close or conceptually akin to.

borderline m or f (plural borderlines)

1. (colloquial) Someone with borderline personality disorder