push the boundaries

Syllable breakdown

Dictionary meaning

to challenge or extend the accepted limits of what is considered possible, permissible, or conventional in a field or situation; pushing the boundaries implies not merely working at the edge of current knowledge or practice but actively straining against the constraints that define that edge, with the intention of moving them further out; the phrase is used in science and technology to describe research that ventures into genuinely novel territory, in the arts to describe work that challenges formal or thematic conventions, and in regulation and ethics to describe actors who test the limits of rules and norms; it carries connotations of boldness and creativity, though in ethical contexts it can also imply recklessness or disregard for important constraints