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out of step

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

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Prepositional phrase

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out of step

  1. Not matching the movement of one's feet with that of others, or with an accompanying beat, while marching or walking.
    At the march-past, little Johnny was out of step with everyone else.
  2. (figurative) Not matching or in agreement (with someone or something).
    Synonym: out of tune
    The government is increasingly out of step with public opinion.
    • 1920, Edith Wharton, chapter 21, in The Age of Innocence, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC, book II, pages 207–208:
      If, now and then, during their travels, they had fallen slightly out of step, harmony had been restored by their return to the conditions she was used to.
    • 1930, Dashiell Hammet, chapter 7, in The Maltese Falcon, New York, N.Y., London: Alfred A[braham] Knopf, →OCLC, pages 77–78:
      What disturbed him was the discovery that in sensibly ordering his affairs he had got out of step, and not into step, with life.
    • 2021 October 20, Ben Jones, “The benefits of (and barriers to) more leisure travel by rail”, in RAIL, number 942, page 32:
      Industry experts are concerned that if the railway doesn't change tack, it would soon find itself out of step with the needs of the nation and in the crosshairs of a Treasury looking to slash spending.
    • 2023 February 26, Simon Tisdall, “Outdated and out of time: Biden’s crusade for global democracy is doomed to fail”, in The Observer[2], →ISSN:
      The US president won rave reviews in Kyiv and Warsaw. But his old, cold war mindset is out of step with a changing world[.]

Antonyms

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Translations

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See also

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References

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