walk in straight lines

walk in straight lines (third-person singular simple present walks in straight lines, present participle walking in straight lines, simple past and past participle walked in straight lines)

1. To adhere to a plan, protocol, or train of thought without any deviation or distraction; to stick to the straight and narrow.
   • 1923, American Magazine - Volume 96, page 16:

     "As I have mentioned some of the modern miracles of science and industry," he went on, "you have asked me how men ever managed to achieve them. This anecdote is my answer. . . . They walked in straight lines. . . . Each man had his 'pine tree' in the distance — his goal."

   • 2012, Jonathan Gray, Watching with The Simpsons: Television, Parody, and Intertextuality, →ISBN:

     'Our established models of the public sphere are deeply rooted in a commitment to rational argument,' notes Graham Murdock (1999: 14), 'But images do not walk in straight lines. They do not wait to take turns. They work by association, detonating a collision of connotations.

   • 2013 January 13, Jeanne Adams, “Macaulay Culkin Clean And Sober Looking For Once, Trying To Win Mila Kunis Back?”, in Celebrity Dirty Laundry:

     Macaulay Culkin clean and sober is a good thing. He's walking in straight lines. He's not buckled over in pain and/or withdraws. Dare I say it, has Macaulay turned a new leaf?

   • 2017 December 31, David Walsh, “Josh Navidi: 'I have never spoken highly of myself and I never will — it's just not me'”, in The Times:

     Josh Navidi says his dad, Hedy, is a bit nuts, though he means it in the nicest way. Some walk in straight lines, Hedayat Rajai Navidi likes to go off on a tangent.

2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see walk,‎ straight,‎ line.
   • 2015 March 17, Carly Berwick, “Zeroing out Zero Tolerance”, in The Atlantic:

     When the principal installed typical no-excuses rules—mandates that students walk in straight lines between rooms or sit in silence if a teacher raises two fingers, for example—the atmosphere of the school apparently calmed and test scores went up.