Lengthy

Long, and more or less tedious.

1759.  I grow too minute and lengthy.—John Adams, ‘Diary,’ Jan. 3. (N.E.D.)

1760.  The most steep and lengthy [hill] to ascend, which I have ever seen.—P. Coffin in ‘New England Hist. and Geneal. Register’ (1855), ix. 341. (N.E.D.)

1772.  A lengthy essay, received from the country.—Mass. Spy, Dec. 10.

1773.  The whole account is too lengthy for this Day’s Paper.—Boston Evening Post, Sept. 27.

1775.  A particular detail is too lengthy to publish in a news paper.—Mass. Spy, Jan. 12.

1782–6.  Ten examples in Jefferson’s ‘Writings.’ (N.E.D.)

1785.  I would have but one bell tolled, and that but for five minutes; for I am not willing that sick and infirm persons should be disturbed with a lengthy noise, at the carrying of the body of my humiliation to the silent grave.—Will of Dr. Samuel Mather, Mass. Spy, July 7.

1793.  The British Critic objects to the word. (N.E.D.)

1795.  

1799.  In the first letter, which is lengthy, the General says, &c.—The Aurora, Phila., Feb. 19.

1801.  A writer in the New-England Palladium animadiverts, in a very correct and critical manner, upon many barbarous American words and phrases. Of lengthy, he declares that it can be found in no English dictionary, and in no English author. It is undoubtedly the growth of the wigwam; and is a vicious, fugitive scoundrel, and True American word. It should be hooted by every elegant English scholar, and proscribed from every page. Spry, Caucus, Illy, &c., are likewise fairly tried and justly condemned.—The Port Folio, i. 247 (Phila.).

1802.  From the president of the U.S. down to Tench Coxe (a wide distance we own) there is scarcely one man of the party, that is not in the habit of employing the true-American words, illy and lengthy.—Id., ii. 39.

1804.  In the year 1800, I wrote, Sir, a lengthy outline of yourself.—Wm. Cunningham, Jun., to John Adams: ‘Adams Corresp.,’ Boston, 1823.

1805.  My uncle’s remarks were considerably more lengthy than what I have here noted down.—Mass. Spy, May 1.

1814.  I mean to have a “starling” taught them, who shall “hallow lengthy” in the ear of every transatlantic critic who shall dare to beard this most orthodox and parliamentary word.—Analectic Mag., iii. 409 (May) (Phila.).

1824.  The Editor of the Onondaga Register … says the jury had a “Lengthy deliberation,” and so forth. Now, as this word (lengthy) is obviously either obsolete or of very recent coinage, it not being in any dictionary now extant,… we hope your Editorship will let us know if the aforesaid “deliberation” was as breadthy as it was lengthy. If so, what might have been the square of it?—The Microscope (Albany, N.Y.), April 3, p. 14/4.

1825.  The preacher, by way of shewing how superiour he was to the carnal influences, at such a time, was rather more “lengthy,” perhaps, than usual.—John Neal, ‘Brother Jonathan,’ i. 133.

1840.  Those three pillars were not so lengthy as to cause the plates and the crowning stone to come in contact.—Millennial Star, p. 175, Nov. [The discovery of the plates on the “hill of Cumorah.”]

1843.  Among his oddities, not the least was his odd person, entitling him to Noah Webster’s word, lengthy,—he appearing alternately all body, when one looked up, and all legs, when one looked down.—B. R. Hall (‘Robert Carlton’), ‘The New Purchase,’ i. 12. (Italics in the original.)

1845.  He [Lord Harrowby] spoke of words that had obtained a sanction in the United States, in the condemnation of which he could not join; for example, lengthy, which imported what was tedious as well as long, an idea that no other English word seemed to convey as well.—Richard Rush, ‘Recollections of a Residence at the English and French Courts,’ p. 267 (1872) (Bartlett). (Italics in the original.)