overlong

overlong

English

Alternative forms

• over-long

Etymology

over- +‎ long

Adjective

overlong

1. Too 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[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act V, scene iii]:

     O, hold me not with silence over-long!

   • 1697, William Dampier, chapter 13, in A New Voyage Round the VVorld. […], London: […] James Knapton, […], OCLC 1179524264, 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.

   • 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, Small Island, London: Review, Chapter Twenty-six, p. 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.

Translations

too long

Maori: tōhira

Adverb

overlong (comparative more overlong, superlative most overlong)

1. Too long, for an excessively long time.
   • 1613, John Florio (translator), Essays by Michel de Montaigne, 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, Youth, London: Secker & Warburg, Chapter Twenty, p. 165,

     He does not need to think overlong to know what the right thing is.