Slang dictionary
stay in your lane
[ stey in yer lean ]
What does stay in your lane mean?
The phrase stay in your lane means “to mind your own business” or “stick with what you know and are good at.”
Where does stay in your lane come from?
Stay in your lane is a metaphor. It uses driving lanes, the lines of which drivers typically stay between for safety’s sake, to paint a mental picture.
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The origins of the phrase are unknown, but it vaulted to the top of headlines in 2017 when LaVar Ball—founder and CEO of sports apparel company Big Baller Brand—told Fox Sports 1 host Kristine Leahy to “stay in your lane” during an appearance on the Colin Cowherd show.
Examples of stay in your lane
Who uses stay in your lane?
Stay in your lane is often used in social justice circles to refer to would-be allies or other people who attempt to speak on an issue with which they are not intimately familiar, such as a white man explaining issues that a woman of color deals with in her day-to-day life.
It can is more generally used to denote that someone (or something) is encroaching on another’s territory or their specialty.
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Note
This is not meant to be a formal definition of stay in your lane like most terms we define on Dictionary.com, but is rather an informal word summary that hopefully touches upon the key aspects of the meaning and usage of stay in your lane that will help our users expand their word mastery.