preliminaries

She opened it and without any preliminaries handed it and the cheque to the banker.

The preliminaries of the negotiation were adjusted at this interview.

You can appear before the public and attend to all preliminaries.

These preliminaries over, Dimples sets herself to pay for her seat.

After the preliminaries of investigation were gone through, the witnesses were called.

The preliminaries were transacted, and the retreat commenced.

Preliminaries were smoothed; he had left the widow wearing his ring.

These preliminaries being arranged, a show of hands was called for.

Now, then, that we have settled the preliminaries of our—oh, dear!

Those were only the preliminaries; the rest belonged to my province.