Meanings
- idiomaticSimilar to, but not exactly equal.
The Minister said something on the lines of, “I don’t care if it causes people to lose their jobs.”
2 more examples
Just now he was wearing a suit of maple-syrup brown with faint but incontrovertible purple stripes. His coat was cut on the lines of one who plays Big Time in vaudeville, and was supplied with many pockets set in unexpected spots and at curious angles.
1921 November 23, Leonard Hatch, “My Heart Leaps Up”, in The OutlookOsnabrück, reached at daybreak, is a remarkable two-level station on the lines of Willesden Junction.
1949 September and October, “The "Nord Express"”, in Railway Magazine, page 336Synonyms: along the lines of
Synonyms & antonyms
prepositionSimilar to, but not exactly equal.
Cite this entry
on the lines of. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/on%20the%20lines%20of
“on the lines of.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/on%20the%20lines%20of. Accessed November 5, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “on the lines of,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/on%20the%20lines%20of.
Source: on the lines of on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.