long

comparative longer · comparative more long · superlative longest · superlative most long · alternative Northumbria lang

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

   I need a long piece of wood.

   5 more examples

   It’s a long way from the Earth to the Moon.

   How long was your newborn baby?

   We expressed our readiness, and in ten minutes were in the station wagon, rolling rapidly down the long drive, for it was then after nine. We passed on the way the van of the guests from Asquith.

   1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter V, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC

   The face which emerged was not reassuring.[…]. He was not a mongol but there was a deficiency of a sort there, and it was not made more pretty by a latter-day hair cut which involved eccentrically long elf-locks and oiled black curls.

   1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 17, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC

   A mature silkworm is an impressive 2¾ inches (70 mm) long and eats 50,000 times its mature body weight over the course of its development.

   2026, Elise Young, “Yagaa: Reviving Sericulture in Southern Mexico”, in Spin Off, volume L, number 1, page 16

   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. informalHaving a long penis.

      My ex was very strong but not very long.

2. Travelling or extending too great a distance in space.
   1. usuallylanding aircraftPassing or landing ahead of or beyond the intended target or location.

      The plane touched down long and overran the end of the runway.

      1 more example

      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, some indication being they had actually been shot at the San Francisco and gone long because San Francisco was travelling significantly slower than expected, they nonetheless hit Juneau and detonated the ship’s magazine.

      2021 March 10, Drachinifel, 28:10 from the start, in Guadalcanal Campaign - The Big Night Battle: Night 1 (IJN 3(?) : 2 USN), archived from the original on 07 Nov 2022

   2. hobbiesGoing beyond the intended target.

      The pass was long and was gathered by the opposing goalkeeper.

      1 more example

      That forehand was long. It landed two feet beyond the baseline.

3. Having great duration.

   His speech was long and dull.

   3 more examples

   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.

   I had occasion […] to make a somewhat long business trip to Chicago, and on my return […] I found Farrar awaiting me in the railway station. He smiled his wonted fraction by way of greeting, […], and finally leading me to his buggy, turned and drove out of town. I was completely mystified at such an unusual proceeding.

   1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter II, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC

   Synonyms: extended, lengthy, prolonged

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.

   2 more examples

   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], Anna Sewell, “A Strike for Liberty”, in Black Beauty: […], London: Jarrold and Sons, […], →OCLC, part II, page 109

5. IrelandUKdatedNot short; tall.

   Bless ’em all, bless ’em all, the long, the short and the tall.

   1940, Fred Godfrey, “Bless 'Em All”performed by George Formby

   1 more example

   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, in Zollenstein, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC

6. businessPossessing 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.

   1 more example

   I have a long position in DuPont.

   Antonyms: short

7. ball gamesOf a fielding position, close to the boundary (or closer to the boundary than the equivalent short position).
8. gamblingOf 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 is not long.

   1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book IIII, Canto IIII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], part II (books IV–VI), London: […] [Richard Field] for William Ponsonby, →OCLC, page 55

10. Multicultural London EnglishslangAfrican-American VernacularIn great supply; abundant.

    Money so long, it’s offensive.

    2016 November 24, “Upgrade You”performed by Kash Doll

    5 more examples

    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

    Rent-a-cars we road run, money longer than train smoke.

    2013 October 7, “No Regrets” (track 7), in My Name Is My Name, performed by Pusha T

    Don't get it twisted, I love my fans. Everything about them keeps me strong. They're the reason why my money be long. Trust me bro, my money be long.

    2017, “Uber Everywhere Freestyle 2”performed by Cadet (rapper)

11. Multicultural London EnglishabbreviationclippingslangClipping of taking a long time.

    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. Abraham)

    2 more examples

    "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 Gammon, 00:35:44 from the start, in Brady Hood, director, Top Boy (Good Morals) (4), episode 1 (TV), spoken by unnamed boy, girl called B

    Synonyms: boring, late, slow, time-consuming

12. Multicultural London Englishbroadlyslangstupid; annoying; bullshit

    Nah fuck that I don't like mixing my circles like that. Plus if some shit goes bad I gotta be in the middle it's all long

    2023 February 18, Simba-xiv, “Most Guys Know That They're^([sic]) Friends Aren't Shit With Women”, in Reddit (subreddit: BlackPeopleTwitter)

    3 more examples

    [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.

    2015 September 18, “Brand New” (track 6), in Don't Panic, performed by Smoke Boys

    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 December 17, Guz Khan, Andy Milligan, “Upper Room” (00:38 from the start), in Ollie Parsons, director, Man Like Mobeen (1), episode 3 (TV), spoken by Mobeen Deen (Guz Khan)

    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, Sagirah Gammon, 00:15:46 from the start, in Brady Hood, director, Top Boy (Good Morals) (4), episode 1 (TV), spoken by Dushane (Ashley Walters)

13. Multicultural London Englishbroadlyslangserious; deadly.

    JAMIE: Yo, if I see you man round here again, it is long for you!

    2022 March 18, Ronan Bennett, Gerry Jackson, Tyrone Rashard, 32:20 from the start, in William Stefan Smith, director, Top Boy (Prove Yourself) (4), episode 8 (TV), spoken by Jamie (Micheal Ward)

    Synonyms: the end, curtains

14. CanadaUSMeasuring 8½ in × 13 in.
15. PhilippinesMeasuring 8½ in × 14 in.

plural longs · alternative Northumbria lang

1. human sciencesA 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. human sciencesA long syllable.
3. entertainmentA note formerly used in music, one half the length of a large, twice that of a breve.
4. computingA 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. businessAn 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. businessA long-maturity security, such as a ten- or twenty-year bond.

   "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 against their Treasury longs have significant initial margin requirements.

   1 more example

   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 shorter maturity issues.

   1977, Jerome B. Cohen, Edward D. Zinbarg, Arthur Zeikel, Guide to Intelligent Investing, →OCLC, page 203

7. abbreviationclippingdatedClipping 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. PhilippinesabbreviationellipsisEllipsis of long bond paper.

present singular third person longs · participle present longing · participle past longed · past longed · alternative Northumbria lang

1. transitivebusinessTo 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

comparative longer · superlative longest

1. hobbiesOver 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. hobbiesOver 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).

   He slept all day long.

   5 more examples

   How long is it until the next bus arrives?

   She has known us as long as you.

   I’ve waited long enough.

   Don't stay longer than two hours.

   The meeting has already gone on much too long.

3. adjectiveadverbparticipleplaced before a verb; preposition; placed before a verb; prepositionFor a long time.

   Long live the Queen.

   5 more examples

   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.

   The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here.

   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

   The world was awake to the 2nd of May, but Mayfair is not the world, and even the menials of Mayfair lie long abed.

   1922, Michael Arlen, “Ep./4/2”, in “Piracy”: A Romantic Chronicle of These Days

4. rareplaced by itself after a positive verbFor 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 Song”, in Alain LeRoy Locke, editor, The New Negro: An Interpretation, New York: Albert and Charles Boni, page 142

5. A long time (see usage notes).

   I haven’t got long to live.

   4 more examples

   Will this interview take long?

   They are in a hurry; they can’t wait for too long.

   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.

   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

   [Verse 1]:[…]Be there in five, man’s taking long. Are you still there? No fam, I’m already gone.

   2021 August 19, “Drake”performed by Most Certi

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

6. between have and a past participleA long time ago.

   The place was solitary and deserted […] only the line of mouldering towers and battlements on the hill above spoke of the busy life that had long passed away.

   1918, James George Frazer, Folk-Lore In The Old Testament, volume 1, page 7

present singular third person longs · participle present longing · participle past longed · past longed

1. intransitiveTo await, aspire, desire greatly (something to occur or to be true).

   She longed for him to come back.

   1 more example

   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 whiskers was rather sad.

   1922, Margery Williams, The Velveteen Rabbit

   Synonyms: ache for, yearn

1. archaicnot comparableOn 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 224

   Synonyms: lengthy

present singular third person longs · participle present longing · participle past longed · past longed

1. archaicTo be appropriate to, to pertain or belong to.

   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, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene iv]

   1 more example

   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: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC

plural longs

1. abbreviationAbbreviation of longitude.

present singular third person longs · participle present longing · participle past longed · past longed

1. obsoleteTo 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), [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire; London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act II, scene v

plural Longs

1. countableuncountableA surname transferred from the nickname. Originally a nickname for a tall man.

   Huey Long

   1 more example

   Then there’s Billy Long, a former auctioneer and Republican congressman who Trump nominated and was confirmed less than two months ago to head the Internal Revenue Service, with “little background in tax policy beyond promoting a fraud-riddled tax credit”. Long has already been fired after clashing with the treasury secretary, Scott Bessent. Long was the sixth person to head the IRS this year.

   2025 August 25, Robert Reich, “Why Trump built a staff of incompetent sycophants”, in The Guardian, archived from the original on 25 Aug 2025

2. countableuncountableAn unincorporated community in Columbia County, Washington, United States.
3. countableuncountableA commune in Somme department, Hauts-de-France, France.

plural Longs · alternative Lung

1. countableA surname from Chinese.
2. countableuncountableA county of Baoji, Shaanxi, China.

   “Long” is an ancient name for the area around what is now Long County in Shaanxi Province. The land south of Long is the Sichuan Basin.

   1997, Stephen R. Bokenkamp, Early Daoist Scriptures, University of California Press, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 346

   2 more examples

   Each animal is cast with a hollow, open body that fits over the yoke of a cart (cat. nos. 31, 3c, 37), as do similarly designed animal figures excavated from a Qin tomb at Bianjiazhuang, Long county, southwestern Shaanxi Province.

   2002, Emma C. Bunker, Nomadic Art of the Eastern Eurasian Steppes: The Eugene V. Thaw and Other Notable New York Collections, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, →OL, page 24

   In May, plaques in Arabic on the lintels above doors of some Hui residents in Shangcha village in Long county under the jurisdiction of Baoji city in the northwestern province of Shaanxi, were replaced with phrases in Chinese, like “Harmony in the family leads to prosperity in all undertakings” and “Diligence and harmony make the family prosper.”

   2019 September 6, Xiaolu Zhou, “Purge of Religious Symbols Invades Residents’ Privacy”, in Bitter Winter, archived from the original on 30 Dec 2019