headlong

headlong

English

Etymology

From Middle English hedlong, alteration of hedling, heedling, hevedlynge (“headlong”), assimilated to long. More at headling.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈhɛd.lɒŋ/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈhɛd.lɔŋ/
• (cot–caught merger, Canada) IPA^(key): /ˈhɛd.lɑŋ/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛdlɒŋ
• Hyphenation: head‧long

Adverb

headlong (not comparable)

1. With the head first or down.
2. With an unrestrained forward motion.

   Figures out today show the economy plunging headlong into recession.

   • 1898, H.G. Wells, “The "Thunder Child."”, in The War of the Worlds‎, Leipzig: Bernhard Tauchnitz, retrieved 24 November 2022, page 175:

     When his eyes were clear again, he saw the monster had passed and was rushing landward. Big iron upper-works rose out of this headlong structure, and from that twin funnels projected, and spat a smoking blast shot with fire into the air. It was the torpedo-ram, Thunder Child, steaming headlong, coming to the rescue of the threatened shipping.

   • 2018 October 17, Drachinifel, Last Ride of the High Seas Fleet - Battle of Texel 1918‎, archived from the original on 4 August 2022, retrieved 4 August 2022, 24:24 from the start:

     Realizing he is now boxed in on all sides, Hipper decides the only remaining card he has to play is to sell his ships as dearly as possible. The remaining German ships make a hard turn southeast, and drive headlong at the Grand Fleet. It is a brave gesture, but only eight of the ships emerge from the pall of smoke that roughly marks the original German line of advance. Two more emerge minutes later, but that is all.

3. Rashly; precipitately; without deliberation; in haste, hastily.

Antonyms

• arselong (UK dialect)

Translations

with the head first or down

Bulgarian: с главата напред (s glavata napred) Catalan: de cap (ca) Finnish: pää edellä, päistikkaa French: la tête la première (fr) German: mit dem Kopf zuerst Irish: i ndiaidh do chinn Latin: praeceps Maori: tūpou (mi) Norwegian: Bokmål: med hode først, hodestups Old English: neowol Russian: голово́й вперёд (golovój vperjód) Serbo-Croatian: naglavce (sh), naglavačke (sh) Spanish: de cabeza Swedish: huvudstupa (sv) Turkish: kafa üstü

with an unrestrained forward motion

Bulgarian: стремително (bg) (stremitelno) Finnish: päätä pahkaa (fi), päistikkaa German: kopfüber (de) Greek: Ancient: ἰταμός (itamós) Irish: i ndiaidh do chinn Norwegian: hals over hode Polish: na oślep Russian: сломя́ го́лову (ru) (slomjá gólovu), очертя́ го́лову (ru) (očertjá gólovu), стремгла́в (ru) (stremgláv), опроме́тью (ru) (oprométʹju), стреми́тельно (ru) (stremítelʹno) Serbo-Croatian: strmoglavce (sh)

in haste, hastily, without deliberation

Aghwan: 𐔱𐕒𐕚𐕍𐔰 (bosq̇a) Bulgarian: прибързано (bg) (pribǎrzano), необмислено (bg) (neobmisleno) German: Hals über Kopf (de), kopfüber (de) Maori: patiko Russian: сломя́ го́лову (ru) (slomjá gólovu), очертя́ го́лову (ru) (očertjá gólovu) Serbo-Croatian: bezglavo (sh) Spanish: de cabeza

Adjective

headlong (comparative more headlong, superlative most headlong)

1. Precipitous.
2. Plunging downwards head foremost.
   • 1993, Michael Hume Jackson, Galapagos, a Natural History (page 143)

     On sighting their prey, they check their flight and hurtle in a headlong dive to the sea.

3. Rushing forward without restraint.
4. (figuratively) Reckless, impetuous.
   • 1869, RD Blackmoore, Lorna Doone, II:

     “Time is up,” cried another boy, more headlong than head-monitor.

Derived terms

• headlongness
• headlongs

Translations

precipitous

Bulgarian: прибързан (bg) (pribǎrzan)

plunging downwards head foremost

Bulgarian: с главата напред (s glavata napred) Norwegian: med hode først Old English: neowol Spanish: de cabeza

rushing forward without restraint

Bulgarian: стремителен (bg) (stremitelen), буен (bg) (buen) Norwegian: hals over hode Plautdietsch: onbesonnen

Verb

headlong (third-person singular simple present headlongs, present participle headlonging, simple past and past participle headlonged)

1. (transitive) To precipitate.
   • 1862, Thomas Adams, The works of Thomas Adams:

     If a stranger be setting his pace and face toward some deep pit, or steep rock — such a precipice as the cliffs of Dover — how do we cry aloud to have him return ? yet in mean time forget the course of our own sinful ignorance, that headlongs us to confusion.

   • 1905, Liberty Hyde Bailey, The outlook to nature:

     Carriages went up and down in endless pageant. Trolley-cars rushed by, clanging and grinding as they headlonged into the side streets.

Anagrams

• Hogeland