Long a. [Compar. Longer superl. Longest ]
1. Drawn out in a line, or in the direction of length; protracted; extended; as, a long line; -- opposed to short, and distinguished from broad or wide.
2. Drawn out or extended in time; continued through a considerable tine, or to a great length; as, a long series of events; a long debate; a long drama; a long history; a long book.
3. Slow in passing; causing weariness by length or duration; lingering; as, long hours of watching.
4. Occurring or coming after an extended interval; distant in time; far away.
The we may us reserve both fresh and strong
Against the tournament, which is not long. --Spenser.
5. Having a length of the specified measure; of a specified length; as, a span long; a yard long; a mile long, that is, extended to the measure of a mile, etc.
6. Far-reaching; extensive. “ Long views.”
7. Phonetics Prolonged, or relatively more prolonged, in utterance; -- said of vowels and syllables. See Short, a., 13, and Guide to Pronunciation, §§ 22, 30.
8. Finance & Com. Having a supply of stocks or goods; prepared for, or depending for a profit upon, advance in prices; as, long of cotton. Hence, the phrases: to be, or go, long of the market, to be on the long side of the market, to hold products or securities for a rise in price, esp. when bought on a margin. Contrasted to short.
Note: ☞ Long is used as a prefix in a large number of compound adjectives which are mostly of obvious meaning; as, long-armed, long-beaked, long-haired, long-horned, long-necked, long-sleeved, long-tailed, long- worded, etc.
In the long run, in the whole course of things taken together; in the ultimate result; eventually.
Long clam Zool., the common clam (Mya arenaria) of the Northern United States and Canada; -- called also soft-shell clam and long-neck clam. See Mya.
Long cloth, a kind of cotton cloth of superior quality.
Long clothes, clothes worn by a young infant, extending below the feet.
Long division. Math. See Division.
Long dozen, one more than a dozen; thirteen.
Long home, the grave.
Long measure, Long meter. See under Measure, Meter.
Long Parliament Eng. Hist., the Parliament which assembled Nov. 3, 1640, and was dissolved by Cromwell, April 20, 1653.
Long price, the full retail price.
Long purple Bot., a plant with purple flowers, supposed to be the Orchis mascula. --Dr. Prior.
Long suit (a) Whist, a suit of which one holds originally more than three cards. --R. A. Proctor. (b) One's most important resource or source of strength; as, as an entertainer, her voice was her long suit.
Long tom. (a) A pivot gun of great length and range, on the dock of a vessel. (b) A long trough for washing auriferous earth. [Western U.S.] (c) Zool. The long-tailed titmouse.
Long wall Coal Mining, a working in which the whole seam is removed and the roof allowed to fall in, as the work progresses, except where passages are needed.
Of long, a long time. [Obs.] --Fairfax.
To be long of the market, or To go long of the market, To be on the long side of the market, etc. Stock Exchange, to hold stock for a rise in price, or to have a contract under which one can demand stock on or before a certain day at a stipulated price; -- opposed to short in such phrases as, to be short of stock, to sell short, etc. [Cant] See Short.
To have a long head, to have a farseeing or sagacious mind.
Di·vi·sion n.
1. The act or process of diving anything into parts, or the state of being so divided; separation.
I was overlooked in the division of the spoil. --Gibbon.
2. That which divides or keeps apart; a partition.
3. The portion separated by the divining of a mass or body; a distinct segment or section.
Communities and divisions of men. --Addison.
4. Disunion; difference in opinion or feeling; discord; variance; alienation.
There was a division among the people. --John vii. 43.
5. Difference of condition; state of distinction; distinction; contrast.
I will put a division between my people and thy people. --Ex. viii. 23.
6. Separation of the members of a deliberative body, esp. of the Houses of Parliament, to ascertain the vote.
The motion passed without a division. --Macaulay.
7. Math. The process of finding how many times one number or quantity is contained in another; the reverse of multiplication; also, the rule by which the operation is performed.
8. Logic The separation of a genus into its constituent species.
9. Mil. (a) Two or more brigades under the command of a general officer. (b) Two companies of infantry maneuvering as one subdivision of a battalion. (c) One of the larger districts into which a country is divided for administering military affairs.
10. Naut. One of the groups into which a fleet is divided.
11. Mus. A course of notes so running into each other as to form one series or chain, to be sung in one breath to one syllable.
12. Rhet. The distribution of a discourse into parts; a part so distinguished.
13. Biol. A grade or rank in classification; a portion of a tribe or of a class; or, in some recent authorities, equivalent to a subkingdom.
Cell division Biol., a method of cell increase, in which new cells are formed by the division of the parent cell. In this process, the cell nucleus undergoes peculiar differentiations and changes, as shown in the figure (see also Karyokinesis). At the same time the protoplasm of the cell becomes gradually constricted by a furrow transverse to the long axis of the nuclear spindle, followed, on the completion of the division of the nucleus, by a separation of the cell contents into two masses, called the daughter cells.
Long division Math., the process of division when the operations are mostly written down.
Short division Math., the process of division when the operations are mentally performed and only the results written down; -- used principally when the divisor is not greater than ten or twelve.
Syn: -- compartment; section; share; allotment; distribution; separation; partition; disjunction; disconnection; difference; variance; discord; disunion.
◄ ►
long division
n : the operation of division in which the sequence of steps are
indicated in detail