long
Language: English
Part of speech: adv
Pronunciation: ipa: /lɒŋ/
ipa: /lɔːŋ/
note: Black Country
enpr: lo͝oŋg
ipa: /lʊŋɡ/
note: Black Country
ipa: /læŋ/
enpr: lông
ipa: /lɔŋ/
enpr: läng
ipa: /lɑŋ/
rhymes: -ɒŋ
Forms: form: longer
form: longest
form: lang
Etymology: From Middle English longe, lange, from Old English longe, lange, from the adjective (see above).
Senses: examples: text: Every golfer wants to hit the ball long and straight.
topics: hobbies
lifestyle
sports
synonyms: a long way
far
antonyms: a short distance
glosses: Over a great distance in space.
examples: text: She hit her return long and lost the point.
topics: hobbies
lifestyle
sports
synonyms: a long way
far
antonyms: a short distance
glosses: Over a great distance in space.
Over too great a distance, beyond the target.
examples: text: How long is it until the next bus arrives?
text: She has known us as long as you.
text: I’ve waited long enough.
text: He slept all day long.
text: The meeting has already gone on much too long.
text: I ſtay too long ; but here my Father comes : / A double bleſſing is a double grace; / Occaſion ſmiles vpon a ſecond leaue.
ref: c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene iii], page 156, column 1:
text: I answer by saying that I have worked too long and hard now against segregated public accommodations to end up segregating my moral concern.
ref: 1991, James Melvin Washington, editor, A testament of hope: the essential writings and speeches of Martin Luther King, page 636:
glosses: For a particular duration (specified by additional qualifying words accompanying it).
examples: text: Paris has long been considered one of the most cultured cities in the world.
text: By eight o’clock, the food will be long gone.
text: I seldom stay long after class, but yesterday I spent the evening and long into the night.
text: The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here.
ref: 1863 November 19, Abraham Lincoln, Dedicatory Remarks (Gettysburg Address)^(https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Gettysburg_Address_(Bliss_copy)), near Soldiers' National Cemetery, →LCCN, Bliss copy, page 2:
text: The world was awake to the 2nd of May, but Mayfair is not the world, and even the menials of Mayfair lie long abed.
ref: 1922, Michael Arlen, “Ep./4/2”, in “Piracy”: A Romantic Chronicle of These Days:
text: Plant breeding is always a numbers game.[…]The wild species we use are rich in genetic variation, […]. In addition, we are looking for rare alleles, so the more plants we try, the better. These rarities may be new mutations, or they can be existing ones that are neutral—or are even selected against—in a wild population. A good example is mutations that disrupt seed dispersal, leaving the seeds on the heads long after they are ripe.
ref: 2013 May-June, David Van Tassel, Lee DeHaan, “Wild Plants to the Rescue”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 3:
text: [Rural solar plant] schemes are of little help to industry or other heavy users of electricity. Nor is solar power yet as cheap as the grid. For all that, the rapid arrival of electric light to Indian villages is long overdue. When the national grid suffers its next huge outage, as it did in July 2012 when hundreds of millions were left in the dark, look for specks of light in the villages.
ref: 2013 July 20, “Out of the gloom”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8845:
qualifier: placed before a verb; preposition; placed before a verb; preposition
glosses: For a long time.
examples: text: It’s an earth song,—
And I’ve been waiting long for an earth song.
It’s a spring song,—
And I’ve been waiting long for a spring song.[…]
I have been waiting long for this spring song.
ref: 1925, Langston Hughes, “An Earth Song”, in Alain LeRoy Locke, editor, The New Negro: An Interpretation, New York: Albert and Charles Boni, page 142:
qualifier: placed by itself after a positive verb
glosses: For a long time.
examples: text: Will this interview take long?
text: I haven’t got long to live.
text: They are in a hurry; they can’t wait for too long.
text: My liefe (ſayd ſhe) ye know, that long ygo, / Whileſt ye in durance dwelt, ye to me gaue / A little mayde, the which ye chylded tho ; / The ſame againe if now ye liſt to haue, / The ſame is yonder Lady, whom high God did ſaue.
ref: 1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book VI, Canto XII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], part II (books IV–VI), London: […] [Richard Field] for William Ponsonby, →OCLC, stanza 17, page 512:
text: [Verse 1]:[…]Be there in five, man’s taking long. Are you still there? No fam, I’m already gone.
ref: 2021 August 19, “Drake”performed by Most Certi:
antonyms: an instant
a minute
a moment
a second
a short time
not long
glosses: A long time (see usage notes).
Derived terms: a creaking door hangs long on its hinges
go long
long gone
long live
long lost
long since
one should live so long
since long
take long
Related terms: far
wide
broad