† 1. For a long while. = LONG adv. 1. Obs.
c. 1340. Richard Rolle of Hampole, Prick of Conscience, 3188. Þe mast veniel syns sal þar bryn langly, Als wodde brinnes, þat es sadde and hevy.
a. 1400. Ipomedon (ed. Kölbing), 327/8. And whan they departed, eithre loked on othre so longly, that they left not, whilles oon might see that othre.
14[?]. Life Alexander, MS. Linc. A. i. 17 lf. 1 (Halliw.). He knelid doune on his kneesse, and bihelde Alexander in the vesage langly.
1502. Ord. Crysten Men (W. de W., 1506), V. vii. 415. A man may desyre for to lyue longely for too amende his lyfe.
1506. Kalender of Sheph., F vij b. Father & mother thou shalt honour, end shalt lyue longely.
1581. Dee, Diary (Camden), 11. Somewhat like the shrich of an owle but more longly drawn.
1596. Shaks., Tam. Shr., I. i. 170. Master, you look’d so longly on the maide, Perhaps you mark’d not what’s the pith of all.
1605. Sir E. Watson, in Buccleuch MSS. (Hist. MSS. Comm.), I. 238. I pray you … deliver it to … the Earl of Exceter with speed, for he longely looketh for it.
2. At considerable length: said of speech or writing. Now Sc.
c. 1330. R. Brunne, Chron. (1810), 222. To say longly or schorte, alle armes bare.
1553. Reg. Privy Council Scot., Ser. I. 140. Lyk as the said artikill mair langlie proportis.
1850. Mrs. Carlyle, Lett., II. 121. Don’t mind length, at least only write longly about yourself.
3. To a considerable length (in space). rare.
1662. J. Chandler, Van Helmont’s Oriat., 54. The bottom of the Sea, hath the Sand Quellem longly and largely laying open.
1871. Cooke, Handbk. Brit. Fungi, II. 761. Asci clavate, obtuse, longly pedicellate.
