out of step

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.

   • 1940, Graham Greene, The Power and the Glory‎, Penguin, published 1977, Part 1, Chapter 4, pp. 51-52:

     The soldiers […] marched out of step in spite of the drum-beat,

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   • 2023 February 26, Simon Tisdall, “Outdated and out of time: Biden’s crusade for global democracy is doomed to fail”, in The Observer‎, →ISSN: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[.]

• in step

• out of sync

• “out of step”, in Collins English Dictionary.