overlong

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English

Alternative forms

Etymology

From over- +‎ long.

Pronunciation

  • Audio (US):(file)

Adjective

overlong

  1. Too long; overly long.
    • 1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Sixt”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :
      O, hold me not with silence over-long!
    • 1697, William Dampier, chapter 13, in A New Voyage Round the World. , London: James Knapton, , →OCLC, page 351:
      As the Island Mindanao lies very convenient for Trade, so considering its distance, the way thither may not be over long and tiresome.
    • 1913, Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Return of Tarzan, New York: Ballantine Books, published 1963, page 196:
      Many of the adults had been little apes during his boyhood. He had frolicked and played about this very jungle with them during their brief childhood. He wondered if they would remember him—the memory of some apes is not overlong, and two years may be an eternity to them.
    • 1962 July, Marcus Newman, “By Car-Sleeper to Switzerland”, in Modern Railways, page 41:
      So far as this particular service is concerned, there is an overlong interval between the arrival of the car-ferry in Calais at 3.45 p.m. and the departure of the Lyss train from Calais Ville at 6.30 p.m.
    • 2004, Andrea Levy, chapter 26, in Small Island‎, London: Review, page 275:
      The next minute the little boy, still in his overlong trousers, was being dragged out of the house by the warden who had him by the ear.

Derived terms

Translations

Adverb

overlong (comparative more overlong, superlative most overlong)

  1. Too long, for an excessively long time.
    • 1613, Michel de Montaigne, translated by John Florio, Essays‎, London: Edward Blount and William Barret, Book 2, Chapter 29, pp. 396-397:
      she casteth the rest into the fire, and there withall sodainely flings herselfe into it: Which is no sooner done, but the people cast great store of Faggots and Billets vpon hir, lest she should languish over-long
    • 1935, Pearl S. Buck, A House Divided‎, London: Methuen, Part 1, pp. 54-55:
      his wandering restless glance lingered over-long even on his girl cousin, so that his pretty sharp-voiced wife recalled him with a little sneer she slipped sidewise into something else she said.
    • 2002, J. M. Coetzee, chapter 20, in Youth‎, London: Secker & Warburg, page 165:
      He does not need to think overlong to know what the right thing is.
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