out of key

English

Prepositional phrase

out of key

1. (figurative) Not in harmony (with); at odds (with).
   • 1938, Norman Lindsay, Age of Consent, 1st Australian edition, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, published 1962, →OCLC, page 63:

     It was a figure quite out of key with that lonely landscape, for it wore a panama hat and a neat dark suit, cut to the order of present day dandyism, which required coats to be tight-waisted up to the armpits and trousers belted in that they might bulge out into extra wide mathematically squared bags.

Antonyms

• in key