(literally, derogatory) To leave an Indian reservation to which one was restricted.
The Indian may go off the reservation, he can steal from the whites and run back to the reservation with impunity.
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(US, politics) To break with one's party or group, usually temporarily.
This hand was ready to give the works to any physician, a member of the Medical Association in good standing, who'd go off the reservation by daring to serve a medical co-operative on a full-time salary.
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(by extension) To engage in disruptive activity outside normal bounds.
I'll never forget 1948 when these so called "liberals" (synthetics I call them) went off the reservation and gave New York to Dewey.
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Regional slang from around the English-speaking world — British, Australian, Irish, Caribbean, Nigerian, Filipino, AAVE, and the hyphenated-English dialects that make the internet sound local.
See all Regional & Other slang on Slangora.