a.
1. Capable of continuing in action for a long time without being out of breath; long-breathed.
1596. Shaks., 1 Hen. IV., III. iii. 181. One poore peny-worth of Sugar-candie to make thee long-winded.
1608. Day, Humour out of breath, IV. G. Pa. Are you in breath my Lord? Hort. As a bruers horse, and as long-winded.
1728. Pope, Dunc., II. 300. A cold, long-winded native of the deep.
1758. Mickmakis & Maricheets, 37. Men that pretend to foretel futurity … by frightful and long-winded howlings.
1870. Dickens, E. Drood, xii. I am younger and longer-winded than you.
1870. Emerson, Soc. & Solit., Farming, Wks. (Bohn), III. 57. This hard work will always be done by … men of endurance,—deep-chested, long-winded, tough.
fig. 1708. Ockley, Saracens (1848), 322. That every one might make preparation for a war which … would be more long-winded than the former.
b. Naut. (See quot.)
1867. Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., Long-winded Whistlers, chase-guns.
2. Of persons: Given to lengthy speaking or writing; characterized by tedious lengthiness in speech, or dilatoriness in action. Of their speech, etc.: Tediously long; of a tedious or wearisome length.
1589. Hay any Work, 48. Thou are longer winded then Deane Iohn is.
1652. Cotterell, trans. Cassandra, III. (1676), 41. Such a long-winded Discourse.
1696. Prior, Secretary, 8. For her, neither visits, nor parties at tea, Nor the long-winded cant of a dull refugee.
a. 1700. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, Long-winded Pay-master, one that very slowly … Paies.
1741. trans. D’Argens’ Chinese Lett., iv. 22. The French Tradesmen are incapable of entering upon such long-winded Methods to favour their Commerce.
1764. Mem. G. Psalmanazar, 230. A long-winded and multifarious dissimulation.
1769. Burke, Corr. (1844), I. 171. I am no great friend, in general, of long-winded performances.
1884. F. R. Stockton, in Century Mag., XXVIII. 589/2. The long-winded old salts who come here to report their wrecks never spin out their prosy yarns to me.
1891. Law Times, XCII. 106/2. Complicated provisions to suit the varying tastes of different owners … make conveyancing often seem long-winded.
Hence Longwindedly adv., Longwindedness.
1837. Carlyle, Fr. Rev., I. V. ii. [They] make known, not without longwindedness, the determinations of the royal breast.
1866. G. Macdonald, Ann. Q. Neighb., xi. (1878), 213. I may speak long-windedly and even inconsiderately as regards my young readers.
1874. Helps, Soc. Press., vii. (1875), 82. I hate long-windedness as much as you do…; but I cannot call good similes and metaphors padding.
1885. Athenæum, 12 Dec., 766/1. The longwindedness of narrative and dialogue only increases the insipidity of the whole.
