not long

adverb

Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see not, long.

“"How long have you been in the service?" ―"Not long."”

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Meanings

adverb
  1. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see not, long.

    "How long have you been in the service?" ―"Not long."

  2. UKFairly recently.

    "[…] You ought to try one of these biscuits. They're good." "I've not long had breakfast," Morgan told him.

    1976, L. P. Davies, Possession, The Crime Club, →ISBN, page 138
    1 more example

    So I'd be going along to Elam Church sometimes and they had to go to a spring to get their water for the church; the spring was less'n a quarter of a mile from the church, good spring of water. And I'd be there, maybe not long got there, or I'd be there a pretty good while before I'd see her.

    2018 July 31, Theodore Rosengarten, All God's Dangers: The Life of Nate Shaw, Vintage, →ISBN, page 60
Cite this entry
APA

not long. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/not%20long

MLA

“not long.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/not%20long. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “not long,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/not%20long.

Source: not long on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.