diff --git a/doc/source/whatsnew/v2.2.0.rst b/doc/source/whatsnew/v2.2.0.rst
index c35473b852eb9..92c3f4aa45861 100644
--- a/doc/source/whatsnew/v2.2.0.rst
+++ b/doc/source/whatsnew/v2.2.0.rst
@@ -92,7 +92,7 @@ Other API changes
 
 Deprecations
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~
--
+- Deprecated allowing non-keyword arguments in :meth:`DataFrame.to_string` except ``buf``. (:issue:`54229`)
 -
 
 .. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
diff --git a/pandas/core/frame.py b/pandas/core/frame.py
index 797b2f4ddb45e..211c0b65046a2 100644
--- a/pandas/core/frame.py
+++ b/pandas/core/frame.py
@@ -64,6 +64,7 @@
 from pandas.util._decorators import (
     Appender,
     Substitution,
+    deprecate_nonkeyword_arguments,
     doc,
 )
 from pandas.util._exceptions import find_stack_level
@@ -1229,6 +1230,9 @@ def to_string(
     ) -> None:
         ...
 
+    @deprecate_nonkeyword_arguments(
+        version=None, allowed_args=["self", "buf"], name="to_string"
+    )
     @Substitution(
         header_type="bool or list of str",
         header="Write out the column names. If a list of columns "
diff --git a/pandas/core/generic.py b/pandas/core/generic.py
index 7624c8f7c7930..88fa32ca5b20b 100644
--- a/pandas/core/generic.py
+++ b/pandas/core/generic.py
@@ -3017,6 +3017,9 @@ def to_sql(
         )
 
     @final
+    @deprecate_nonkeyword_arguments(
+        version=None, allowed_args=["self", "path"], name="to_pickle"
+    )
     @doc(
         storage_options=_shared_docs["storage_options"],
         compression_options=_shared_docs["compression_options"] % "path",