not long for this world

not long for this world

English

Alternative forms

• not long for the world

Adjective

not long for this world (not comparable)

1. (idiomatic) Unlikely to endure for much more time.
   • 1787, John Quincy Adams, Charles Francis Adams, editor, Life in a New England Town, 1787, 1788: Diary of John Quincy Adams (1903), page 109:

     Townsend went there with us, but found himself so unwell that he went home very early. His cough has return'd, with several disagreeable symptoms. I fear exceedingly that he is not long for this world.

   • 1843, Thomas Carlyle, Past and Present, book 1, ch. 6, Hero-Worship:

     He thinks that said soul will have to be resuscitated from its asphyxia; that if it prove irresuscitable, the man is not long for this world.

   • 1928, Dorothy L. Sayers, "The Undignified Melodrama of the Bone of Contention", in Dorothy L. Sayers: the complete stories, (2002), page 92:

     But I've had a warning, and I'm not long for this world."

     "Not long for this world? Oh, nonsense, Plunkett. You mustn't talk like that. A touch of indigestion, that's what you've got, I expect.

   • 2006, Richard Peck, The Teacher's Funeral: A Comedy in Three Parts, page 188:

     Though Aunt Maud had always maintained she was not long for this world, she outlived all her generation.

Usage notes

• Only used as a predicate.
• Variant forms substitute for "this world": "here", "this earth", "this life", "these parts", "this world".
• Other variants soften "long", as: "not much longer for this world".