can a css border start away from the corner?

Is it possible to have css borders starting away from the corner of the parent element?

I am in a situation where can't use padding to bring the width in because borders still go to the edge, and I can't u开发者_如何学编程se margin because I need the background colour to go to the edge.

I would really rather avoid another parent div if possible.

There isn't an alternative. You will need to use another parent div.

not possible - you will have to bite the bullet and spend another tag on your page

If you don't want to add the extra markup, get the design to a place you think is ok, then add the extra divs with JavaScript.

It's worth noting that this can be done with pseudo elements, but this was not appropriate as I needed xBrowser compatibility.