length

The distance measured along the longest dimension of an object.

Noun

  1. The distance measured along the longest dimension of an object.

    Synonyms: distance

  2. Duration.
    • Happiness makes up in height for what it lacks in length. - 1941, Robert Frost, The Gift Outright:
  3. The length of a horse, used to indicate the distance between horses at the end of a race.
    • five lengths ahead of the field
  4. Distance between the two ends of a line segment.
  5. The distance down the pitch that the ball bounces on its way to the batsman.
  6. Total extent.
    • the length of a book
  7. Part of something that is long; a physical piece of something.
    • a length of rope
    • a length of hair
  8. A penis.
    • , Bride for the Billionaire Bear Shifter His cock felt firm under her palm, and her mouth watered as she imagined wrapping her lips around his length.
  9. A unit of script length, comprising 42 lines.
    • […] open your book of the play, which you have previously carefully perused, and at the same time marked with the proper calls, as thus: a length (or 42 lines) before an entrance, with a pen make a figure on the margin,...
    • The boy was engaged to write out parts at a penny a length (42 lines) for Chetwood, who then charged the manager, […] - 1960, J. L. Hodgkinson, Rex Pogson, The Early Manchester Theatre, page 45:
  10. The number of cards held in a particular suit.
    • An artificial bid doesn't necessarily show length in the suit being bid, it has an altogether different meaning. - 1999, Edwin B. Kantar, Eddie Kantar Teaches Advanced Bridge Defense, page 191:
  11. The amount of time for which the taste of wine lingers on the palate after swallowing or spitting it out, measured in caudilies.

Origin

From Middle English lengthe, from Old English lengþ, lengþu, from Proto-West Germanic *langiþu, from Proto-Germanic *langiþō, equivalent to long + -th (abstract nominal suffix). Cognate with Scots lenth, lainth (“length”), Saterland Frisian Loangte (“length”), West Frisian lingte, langte (“length”), Dutch lengte (“length”), German Low German Längde, Längd, Längte, Längt (“length”), Danish længde (“length”), Swedish längd (“length”), Icelandic lengd (“length”).

Forms

lengths

Synonyms

length lengthiness longitude longness

Antonyms

width

Hypernyms

physical property size

Hyponyms

span

Derived

after length after-length arc length arclength armlength arm's length arm's length price arm's length principle at arm's length at length bishop's length bitlength Bjerrum length block length boatlength boatslength bond length book-length brength cable length calf-length calibrated focal length chunklength cocktail length

Verb

  1. To lengthen.
    • Pack night, peep day; good day, of night now borrow: / Short night, to-night, and length thyself to-morrow.
    • Was never man such favour could off atall ladies fynde, To cause them lengthe or shorte the day which they to hym assynde. - 1552, Richard Huloet, “Ladies of Destinie”, in Abecedarium Anglico-Latinum:
    • [He] knows full well life doth but length his pain. - a. 1608, Thomas Sackville, Allegorical Personages described in Hell:

Forms

lengths lengthing lengthed