a. and adv. Obs. [OE. lęngra, neut. and fem. lęngre:—OTeut. *laŋgizon-, compar. of LONG a.]
A. adj. Longer.
c. 900. trans. Bæda’s Hist., I. i. (1890), 26. Þis ealond hafað mycele lengran daʓas on sumera … þonne ða suðdælas middanʓeardes.
c. 1340. Cursor M., 490 (Trin.). He fel wiþouten lenger abade [Cott. langer bade].
c. 1386. Chaucer, Prol., 330. Of his array telle I no lenger tale.
a. 1450. Knt. de la Tour (1868), 42. The parchemyn that he wrote in was shorte, and he plucked harde to have made it lengger with his tethe.
c. 1450. Merlin, 110. The barouns hadde sente for hym that he sholde come with-oute lenger a-bidinge.
1526. Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W., 1531), 100 b. We haue made this chapyter somwhat lenger than we entended.
1558. Bury Wills (Camden), 152. My saide iiij children or the lenger lyver of them.
1561. Norton & Sackv., Gorboduc, IV. ii. (Shaks. Soc.), 136. Our present hande coulde staie no lenger tyme.
B. adv. Longer.
c. 1200. Trin. Coll. Hom., 139. Ðo ne mihte his holinesse ben no lengere for-hole.
c. 1290. Beket, 219, in S. Eng. Leg., I. 113. Þis child wolde lengore gon to scole, ake is fader him nolde finde.
c. 1340. Cursor M., 3948 (Trin.). Iacob … So shal þi name no lenger be [Cott. Sal þou na langer hetten sua].
c. 1385. Chaucer, Anel. & Arc., 129. And euer the lenger she loued him tendirly.
c. 1450. St. Cuthbert (Surtees), 5296. Þe scottys þare na lenger duell.
1521. Fisher, Serm. agst. Luther, Wks. (1876), 340. This persecucyon lenger continued than the other twayne.
1533. More, Answ. Poysoned Bk., Wks. 1047/1. These folke do not long to eate and drincke, to lyue the lenger, but long to liue, to eate and drincke the lenger.
1590. Spenser, F. Q., I. vii. 22. Why do ye lenger feed on loathed light?
b. Farther. rare–1.
c. 1425. Found. St. Bartholomew’s, 10. An hospitall howse a litill lenger of from the chirche by hymself.
