He loved her humour and the fact that she treated him as an equal, although their business was always conducted on the most formal lines.

Brown delineates the issue along cultural as well as formal lines.

The rest stood to right and left in a formal line.

The engineers stood in front of her at attention in a formal line.

The two nations, both considered friends of the United States, never drew a formal line through the 625 miles that separate them.

She went late, in case they had some sort of formal receiv-ing line set up at the start.

Most group and organizational behavior takes place "outside" of the formal lines of authority.

So what opportunities do we have if we cannot achieve progress along formal lines?

He liked his dinner parties to be run on more formal lines.

"That's very gracious, Doctor, but I was thinking of a discussion along more formal lines."