as in traditional
tending to favor established ideas, conditions, or institutions
an old-line professor who still taught as if it were 1930
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Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of old-line
In 2010, Brown was serving on the board of the Historic Wilmington Foundation, an old-line preservation organization.
—
Lauren Collins,
New Yorker,
3 July 2026
Built on a hillside overlooking Vila Nova de Gaia (where most of the old-line port merchants are located) and the Douro River, the luxurious 82-room hotel gets its identity from the local wine trade.
—
Condé Nast,
Condé Nast Traveler,
23 June 2026
There were old-line Whigs who preferred some sort of compromise, and in the upper South, there were those who thought the Union was indivisible.
—
Encyclopedia Britannica,
26 May 2026
And for the first time, top Wall Street banks weren’t just attracting WASP or old-line German Jewish men with family ties to banking, the historic mainstays of the finance world.
—
Literary Hub,
15 May 2026
The larger, at 31 Pratt, is the former headquarters of Society for Savings, an old-line bank whose roots stretched back to 1819.
—
Kenneth R. Gosselin,
Hartford Courant,
9 Apr. 2026
Under this scenario, the public models will start to look like old-line enterprise software companies, taking in proprietary data, fine-tuning a version of their public model to be private, and then running that model for the customer.
—
Forrester,
Forbes.com,
20 Mar. 2026
These firms had been the envy of the old-line investment banking houses.
—
Jim Cramer,
CNBC,
1 Mar. 2026
More practically, people on Netflix’s side might say that further industry consolidation is inevitable, given changing consumer habits and shifting business models for old-line media companies.
—
Brian Stelter,
CNN Money,
5 Dec. 2025
Lauren Collins,
New Yorker,
3 July 2026
Built on a hillside overlooking Vila Nova de Gaia (where most of the old-line port merchants are located) and the Douro River, the luxurious 82-room hotel gets its identity from the local wine trade.
—
Condé Nast,
Condé Nast Traveler,
23 June 2026
There were old-line Whigs who preferred some sort of compromise, and in the upper South, there were those who thought the Union was indivisible.
—
Encyclopedia Britannica,
26 May 2026
And for the first time, top Wall Street banks weren’t just attracting WASP or old-line German Jewish men with family ties to banking, the historic mainstays of the finance world.
—
Literary Hub,
15 May 2026
The larger, at 31 Pratt, is the former headquarters of Society for Savings, an old-line bank whose roots stretched back to 1819.
—
Kenneth R. Gosselin,
Hartford Courant,
9 Apr. 2026
Under this scenario, the public models will start to look like old-line enterprise software companies, taking in proprietary data, fine-tuning a version of their public model to be private, and then running that model for the customer.
—
Forrester,
Forbes.com,
20 Mar. 2026
These firms had been the envy of the old-line investment banking houses.
—
Jim Cramer,
CNBC,
1 Mar. 2026
More practically, people on Netflix’s side might say that further industry consolidation is inevitable, given changing consumer habits and shifting business models for old-line media companies.
—
Brian Stelter,
CNN Money,
5 Dec. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for old-line
Adjective
-
But the shift underscores a dramatic loss of clout by Comcast and other traditional media enterprises.
-
While the crowds spent their money on an overheated summer in the Mediterranean, a quieter group is waiting patiently for September, October and November, the traditional shoulder season.
Adjective
-
The conservative assault on child health starts with the anti-vaccine campaign and proceeds to cutbacks in nutrition assistance and narrowed access to healthcare.
-
Each capsule biography offers a short video created in partnership with the conservative media organization PragerU.
Adjective
-
Rodriguez almost played as an auxiliary right-back instead of an orthodox right-winger, dropping deep and dictating play.
-
In an age of intelligent machines, who gets to decide what is orthodox remains one of the most important questions a free society can ask.
Cite this Entry
“Old-line.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/old-line. Accessed 7 Jul. 2026.
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