Mason-Dixon line

[ mey-suhn-dik-suhn ]

noun

1. the boundary between Pennsylvania and Maryland, partly surveyed by Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon between 1763 and 1767, popularly considered before the end of slavery as a line of demarcation between Free States and Slave States.

Mason-Dixon Line

/ ˈmeɪsə n ˈdɪksən /

noun

1. the state boundary between Maryland and Pennsylvania: surveyed between 1763 and 1767 by Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon; popularly regarded as the dividing line between North and South, esp between the free and the slave states before the American Civil War

Mason-Dixon line

¹

1. Part of the boundary between Pennsylvania and Maryland established by the English surveyors Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon in the 1760s. The line resolved disputes caused by unclear description of the boundaries in the Maryland and Pennsylvania charters.

Mason-Dixon line

²

1. A boundary line between Pennsylvania and Maryland , laid out by two English surveyors, Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon, in the 1760s. Before and during the Civil War , the line was symbolic of the division between slaveholding and free states. After the war, it remained symbolic of the division between states that required racial segregation and those that did not.

Notes

Though the line did not actually divide North and South, it became the symbolic division between free states and slave states. Today, it still stands for the boundary between northern and southern states.

Word History and Origins

Origin of Mason-Dixon line¹

An Americanism dating back to 1770–80

Example Sentences

And don’t mention the Civil War below the Mason-Dixon line, because down there it was still called the War of Northern Aggression.

From Los Angeles Times

Illinois and not the Deep South became “Heat’s” location because Poitier refused to film south of the Mason-Dixon line.

From Los Angeles Times

And with all due respect to the people of the Lone Star State, I think it’s time for a season somewhere north of the Mason-Dixon line.

From Los Angeles Times

Of the slowest states, only Illinois is above the Mason-Dixon line.

From Washington Times

The Huntington’s array of early American maps includes those marking the Mason-Dixon line, the geographical star of his 1997 historical novel, “Mason & Dixon.”

From Los Angeles Times