off the beaten track
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
Away from popular or usual places
Literally: not on a commonly used path
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
For example, with fell running and mountain marathons gaining in popularity, how about some ideas for safe running off the beaten track?
‘ It's well off the beaten track,’ he continued.
British National Corpus sentence via the MAGPIE corpus (CC BY 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-30)
Sources & notes
Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-31; pending editor spot-check.
Equivalents & related
Common questions
What does “off the beaten track” mean?
Away from popular or usual places Literally: not on a commonly used path
Is “off the beaten track” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.
What is the closest equivalent?
“thâm sơn cùng cốc” (Tiếng Việt) — near equivalent.