long

Having much distance in space from one end to the other.

Adjective

  1. Having much distance in space from one end to the other.
    • I need a long piece of wood.
    • It’s a long way from the Earth to the Moon.
    • How long was your newborn baby?

    1. Specifically, having much distance in a horizontal dimension (see also Usage Notes below).

      • This table is long but not very high.

    2. Travelling a great distance.

      • Smith hoofs a long ball up to Jones.

    3. (informal) Having a long penis.

      • My ex was very strong but not very long.
  2. Travelling or extending too great a distance in space.
    • The plane touched down long and overran the end of the runway.
    • Juneau was making good time with the other surviving U.S. Navy ships, despite her damage, when the I-26 spotted her and sent a salvo of Type 95 torpedoes in her direction. Passing between the Helena and San Francisco,...

    1. (of weapons fire, landing aircraft, etc.) Passing or landing ahead of or beyond the intended target or location.

    2. (sports, of a ball or shot) Going beyond the intended target.

      • That forehand was long. It landed two feet beyond the baseline.
      • The pass was long and was gathered by the opposing goalkeeper.
  3. Having great duration.
    • His speech was long and dull.
    • The pyramids of Egypt have been around for a long time.
    • I took a long look at the house, knowing it was for the last time.
  4. Seeming to last a lot of time, due to being boring, tedious, tiring, irksome, etc.
    • It took us three long weeks to clear the stones from the field.
    • It'll be a long journey home for the travelling supporters after that 5-0 defeat.
    • What I suffered with that rein for four long months in my lady’s carriage, it would be hard to describe, but I am quite sure that, had it lasted much longer, either my health or my temper would have given way. - [1877],...
  5. Not short; tall.
    • The colonel and his sponsor made a queer contrast: Greystone [the sponsor] long and stringy, with a face that seemed as if a cold wind was eternally playing on it. - 1908, W[illiam] B[lair] M[orton] Ferguson, chapter I,...
    • Bless ’em all, bless ’em all, the long, the short and the tall. - 1940, Fred Godfrey, “Bless 'Em All”performed by George Formby:
  6. Possessing or owning stocks, bonds, commodities, or other financial instruments with the aim of benefiting from an expected rise in their value.
    • I’m long in DuPont.
    • I have a long position in DuPont.

    Antonyms: short

  7. Of a fielding position, close to the boundary (or closer to the boundary than the equivalent short position).
  8. Of betting odds, offering a very large return for a small wager.
  9. Occurring or coming after an extended interval; distant in time; far away.
    • But Campbell thus did ſhut vp all in ieſt, / Braue Knights and Ladies, certes ye doe wrong / To ſtirre vp ſtrife, when moſt vs needeth reſt, / That we may vs reſerue both freſh and ſtrong, / Againſt the Turneiment which...
  10. In great supply; abundant.
    • I’m talkin’ ’bout… I’m talkin’ ’bout that long money. - 2011 December 18, “Ballin' Uncontrollably” (track 7), in King Mather's LP, performed by Eminem:
    • Me and broke niggas, we don’t get along (Nah). Hair long (Long), money long (Yeah). - 2012 November 8, “I'm Different” (track 6), in Based on a T.R.U. Story, performed by 2 Chainz:
    • Never lie, money longer than Pinnochio. - 2013 June 12, “Shoulda Woulda” (track 16), in Project Baby, performed by Kodak Black:
  11. Clipping of taking a long time.
    • "Cadet, Cadet!" Not every day, fam. Can't you see why it's long? I just wanna get my creps and be gone. - 2017, “Uber Everywhere Freestyle 2”performed by Cadet (rapper):
    • BOY: B, this is long for man, you know. B: Keep complaining. BOY: Fucking gemming it with these things (he continues collecting empty drinks cans). - 2022 March 18, Ronan Bennett, Gerry Jackson, Tyrone Rashard, Sagirah...
    • INCHEZ: Man this is long! We’ve been in here for time! - 2023 January 15, Layton Williams, 12:51 from the start, in Freddy Syborn, director, Bad Education (Prison) (4), episode 3 (TV), spoken by Inchez (Anthony J....

    Synonyms: boring late slow time-consuming

  12. stupid; annoying; bullshit
    • [Verse 1: Sleeks]: Keep thinking about Ps that I need but it’s long. All these things that I've done in the streets got me on my knees trying to reason with God. B-B beefin’ is long but I might still greeze up a Don. -...
    • MOBEEN: I do love nature when it’s on television and David Attenborough’s presenting. I hate nature in real life! Smells like shite around here! Plants and (he waves a fly away) …plants and that. It’s so long! - 2017...
    • DUSHANE: I’m stepping back from the roads now. All of that shit is long! And by next year, I want to be completely legit, then it’s just me, you and Tish. - 2022 March 18, Ronan Bennett, Gerry Jackson, Tyrone Rashard,...

Origin

From Middle English long, lang, from Old English long, lang (“long, tall, lasting”), from Proto-West Germanic *lang, from Proto-Germanic *langaz (“long”), from Proto-Indo-European *dlongʰos (“long”). Cognates Cognate with Scots lang (“long”), Yola lhaung, long (“long”), North Frisian long, lung, lüng (“long”), Saterland Frisian loang (“long”), West Frisian lang (“long”), Cimbrian lång (“long”), Dutch, German, and Low German lang (“long”), Luxembourgish laang (“long”), Mòcheno lònk (“long”), Vilamovian łaong (“long”), Yiddish לאַנג (lang, “long”), Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, and Norwegian Nynorsk lang (“long”), Faroese and Icelandic langur (“long”), Swedish lång (“long”), Gothic 𐌻𐌰𐌲𐌲𐍃 (laggs, “long”); also Latin longus (“long”) (whence French long (“long”), Italian lungo (“long”), Portuguese longo (“long”), Spanish luengo (“long”)), Ancient Greek δολιχός (dolikhós, “long; wearisome”),...

Forms

longer more long longest most long lang

Synonyms

deep extended high lengthy tall prolonged lengthful lengthsome long longsome prolix

Antonyms

low shallow short brief wide

Hypernyms

large

Hyponyms

daylong day-long days-long dayslong decade-long decadelong decades-long fortnight-long hour-long hours-long long-standing month-long months-long weeklong week-long weeks-long yard-long yearlong year-long yearslong years-long deep tall elongated

Related

broad wide

Derived

African long-tailed shrike age-long a little goes a long way a little of something goes a long way a long time coming a long time in coming armlong as broad as long as long as as the day is long Attenborough's long-beaked echidna a week is a long time in politics before long block-long blocklong by a long chalk by a long shot by a long way by long chalks Cadena's long-tongued bat centuries-long come a long way daddy longlegs draw a long bow

Adjective archaic, not comparable

  1. On account of, because of.
    • I am of opinion, that in regarde of theſe debauches and lewde actions, fathers may, in ſome ſort, be blamed, and that it is onely long of them. - 1603, Michel de Montaigne, translated by John Florio, Essays, II.8, page...

Origin

From Middle English long, lang, an aphetic form of Middle English ilong, ylong, from Old English ġelong, ġelang (“along, belonging, depending, consequent”); the verb later reinterpreted as an aphetic form of belong.

Synonyms

lengthful lengthsome lengthy long longsome prolix

Antonyms

short wide

Hypernyms

large

Hyponyms

deep tall elongated extended

Adverb

  1. Over a great distance in space.
    • Every golfer wants to hit the ball long and straight.

    Synonyms: a long way far

    Antonyms: a short distance

    1. Over too great a distance, beyond the target.

      • She hit her return long and lost the point.

      Synonyms: a long way far

      Antonyms: a short distance

  2. For a particular duration (specified by additional qualifying words accompanying it).
    • How long is it until the next bus arrives?
    • She has known us as long as you.
    • I’ve waited long enough.
  3. For a long time.
    • Paris has long been considered one of the most cultured cities in the world.
    • By eight o’clock, the food will be long gone.
    • I seldom stay long after class, but yesterday I spent the evening and long into the night.

    1. For a long time.

      • 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. - 1925, Langston Hughes, “An Earth...
  4. A long time (see usage notes).
    • Will this interview take long?
    • I haven’t got long to live.
    • They are in a hurry; they can’t wait for too long.

    Antonyms: an instant a minute a moment a second a short time not long

Origin

From Middle English longe, lange, from Old English longe, lange, from the adjective (see above).

Forms

longer longest

Related

far wide broad

Derived

a creaking door hangs long on its hinges go long long live long lost long since one should live so long since long take long

Noun human sciences, linguistics

  1. A long vowel.
    • In French most vowels are half-long, and are only occasionally lengthened or shortened into full longs and shorts. - 1877, Henry Sweet, A Handbook of Phonetics, volume 2, page 60:
  2. A long syllable.
  3. A note formerly used in music, one half the length of a large, twice that of a breve.
  4. A long integer variable, twice the size of an int, two or four times the size of a short, and half of a long long.
    • A long is typically 64 bits in a 32-bit environment.
  5. An entity with a long position in an asset; for example, a trader or investor possessing an amount of a company's shares.
    • Every uptick made the longs cheer.

    Synonyms: bull

  6. A long-maturity security, such as a ten- or twenty-year bond.
    • Likewise, if borrowers prefer to sell short-maturity issues at the time lenders prefer to invest in longs, as is the case when interest rates are expected to fall, longer maturity issues will tend to yield less than...
    • "U.S. Treasury Market Structure", https://www.mfaalts.org/issue/u-s-treasury-market-structure/ Hedge funds are constrained in how much leverage they can utilize, in part because the futures contracts they are shorting...
  7. Clipping of long vacation (“summer vacation”).
    • “[…] Did I not forbid all these nicknames and all this Oxfordish, by proclamation, last Long.” “Last Long?” “Hem! last protracted vacation.” - 1863, Charles Reade, Hard Cash:
  8. Ellipsis of long bond paper.

Forms

longs lang

Noun abbreviation, alt of

  1. Abbreviation of longitude.

    Coordinate Terms: lat

Origin

Shortening of longitude.

Forms

longs

Verb business, finance

  1. To take a long position in.
    • The left panel shows the profile of a portfolio consisting of longing a call and shorting a put. - 2004, Thomas S. Y. Ho with Sang Bin Lee and Sang-bin Yi, The Oxford Guide to Financial Modeling, page 84:

Forms

longs longing longed lang

Verb Entry 7

  1. To await, aspire, desire greatly (something to occur or to be true).
    • She longed for him to come back.
    • The Rabbit sighed. He thought it would be a long time before this magic called Real happened to him. He longed to become Real, to know what it felt like; and yet the idea of growing shabby and losing his eyes and...

    Synonyms: ache for yearn

Origin

From Middle English longen, from Old English langian (“to long for, yearn after, grieve for, be pained, lengthen, grow longer, summon, belong”), from Proto-West Germanic *langōn, from Proto-Germanic *langōną (“to desire, long for”), from Proto-Indo-European *lengʷʰ- (“to be easy, be quick, jump, move around, vary”). Cognate with German langen (“to reach, be sufficient”), Swedish langa (“to push, pass by hand”), Icelandic langa (“to want, desire”), Dutch, German verlangen (“to desire, want, long for”).

Forms

longs longing longed

Derived

belong forlong long for longing

Verb archaic

  1. To be appropriate to, to pertain or belong to.
    • A goodly Armour, and full rich aray, / Which long’d to Angela, the Saxon Queene, / All fretted round with gold, and goodly wel beseene. - 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto III”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London:...
    • Tis well, and hold your owne in any case / With such austeritie as longeth to a father. - c. 1590–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Taming of the Shrew”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, &...

Forms

longs longing longed

Verb obsolete

  1. To belong.
    • Now ſend Ambaſſage to thy neighbor Kinges, And let them know the Perſian King is chang’d: From one that knew not what a King ſhould doe, To one that can commaund what longs there to: […] - c. 1587–1588 (date written),...

Origin

From Middle English longen, from Old English langian (“to belong, pertain”), from Old English *lang, which is of uncertain origin yet related to Old English ġelang (“dependent, attainable, present, belonging, consequent”), Old Saxon gilang (“ready, available”).

Forms

longs longing longed