Old-line
adj ·Uncommon ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 Reactionary or conservative.
"I am deliberately convinced that Mr. Filmore has not the least chance of success, and that if it be at all possible to defeat Fremont, the Democratic party, with their candidates Buchanan and Breckinridge, with the aid of the Union-loving Old-line Whigs, is the only party which has the least chance to do so."
- 2 Long-established.
"One of the old line insurance companies said to me recently, that they never made anything out of their underwriting business, but made their profit out of the investments of the reserved fund"
- 1 long-established wordnet
- 2 adhering to conservative or reactionary principles wordnet
Example
More examples"I am deliberately convinced that Mr. Filmore has not the least chance of success, and that if it be at all possible to defeat Fremont, the Democratic party, with their candidates Buchanan and Breckinridge, with the aid of the Union-loving Old-line Whigs, is the only party which has the least chance to do so."
Etymology
From old + line (“stated positions of a political or religious group”). Attested from the 19th century, originally in the United States.
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.