livelong

L1I1V4E1L1O1N1G2
/ˈlɪv.lɒŋ/

adjective

Total, complete, whole.

“I've been working on the railroad, all the livelong day.”

Similar
wholeorpineorpinlive-foreverSedum telephium
OriginMiddle English live long →
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Meanings

adjective

alternative live-long

  1. Total, complete, whole.

    I've been working on the railroad, all the livelong day.

    2 more examples

    How dreary to be somebody! / How public, like a frog / To tell your name the livelong day / To an admiring bog!

    a. 1887 (date written), Emily Dickinson, “I'm Nobody! Who are you?”, in Mabel Loomis Todd and T[homas] W[entworth] Higginson, editors, Poems, Second Series, Boston, Mass.: Roberts Brothers, published 1891, page 21

    […] so they might spend the livelong day as befitteth high holiday, in pleasure and action without care, and thereafter revel in the lofty presence chamber till night grew old with eating and drinking and all delight.

    1922, E[ric] R[ücker] Eddison, The Worm Ouroboros: A Romance, London: Jonathan Cape […], →OCLC, page 7
  2. obsoleteLasting; durable.

    Thou, in our wonder and astonishment, Thou hast built thyself a live-long monument.

    1630, John Milton, On Shakespeare
nounlivelong (plural livelongs)

plural livelongs · alternative live-long

  1. Orpine (Hylotelephium telephium syn. Sedum telephium).

Synonyms & antonyms

adjective(of time) constituting the full extent or duration

Similar
whole

nounperennial northern temperate plant with toothed leaves and heads of small purplish-white flowers

Similar
orpineorpinlive-foreverSedum telephium
Broader
sedum
Also see
orpinorpine

Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.

Origin

  1. Middle Englishlive long
  2. Englishlivelong

From Middle English live long, leve-long, lefe long (as in Alle the lefe longe daye), equivalent to lief + long. Compare Dutch heel den lieven langen dag (“all the livelong day”), German der liebe lange Tag (“the livelong day”) and German die liebe lange Nacht (“the livelong night”).

More words from Middle English

Full word history & related roots →

Translations

Russian це́лый, весь
  • це́лый (célyj)total, complete, whole
  • весь (vesʹ)total, complete, whole

Rhymes & wordplay

Anagrams

loveling
Cite this entry
APA

livelong. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/livelong

MLA

“livelong.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/livelong. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “livelong,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/livelong.

Source: livelong on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.