Quite vs Long - What's the difference?
quite | long |
(lb) To the greatest extent or degree; completely, entirely.
#With verbs, especially past participles.
#*, Book I:
#*:Thus when they had the witch disrobed quight , / And all her filthy feature open showne, / They let her goe at will, and wander wayes vnknowne.
#*2005 , Adrian Searle, The Guardian , 4 October:
#*:Nobuyoshi Araki has been called a monster, a pornographer and a genius - and the photographer quite agrees.
#With prepositional phrases and spatial adverbs.
#*1891 , (Thomas Nelson Page), On Newfound River :
#*:Margaret passed quite through the pines, and reached the opening beyond which was what was once the yard, but was now, except for a strip of flower-border and turf which showed care, simply a tangle of bushes and briars.
#*2010 , Joanna Briscoe, The Guardian , 30 October:
#*:Religion and parochial etiquette are probed to reveal unhealthy, and sometimes shockingly violent, internal desires quite at odds with the surface life of a town in which tolerance is preached.
#With predicative adjectives.
#*1914 , (Edgar Rice Burroughs), (The Son of Tarzan) :
#*:El Adrea was quite dead. No more will he slink silently upon his unsuspecting prey.
#*:
#*:In Lejeuneaceae vegetative branches normally originate from the basiscopic basal portion of a lateral segment half, as in the Radulaceae, and the associated leaves, therefore, are quite unmodified.
#With attributive adjectives, following an (especially indefinite) article; chiefly as expressing contrast, difference etc.
#*2003 , (Richard Dawkins), A Devil's Chaplain :
#*:When I warned him that his words might be offensive to identical twins, he said that identical twins were a quite different case.
#*2011 , Peter Preston, The Observer , 18 September:
#*:Create a new, quite separate, private company – say Murdoch Newspaper Holdings – and give it all, or most of, the papers that News Corp owns.
#Preceding nouns introduced by the indefinite article. Chiefly in negative constructions.
#*1791 , (James Boswell), (Life of Samuel Johnson) :
#*:I ventured to hint that he was not quite a fair judge, as Churchill had attacked him violently.
#*1920 , (John Galsworthy), (In Chancery) :
#*:And with a prolonged sound, not quite' a sniff and not ' quite a snort, he trod on Euphemia's toe, and went out, leaving a sensation and a faint scent of barley?sugar behind him.
#With adverbs of manner.
#*2009 , John F. Schmutz, The Battle of the Crater: A complete history :
#*:However, the proceedings were quite carefully orchestrated to produce what seemed to be a predetermined outcome.
#*2011 , Bob Burgess, The Guardian , 18 October:
#*:Higher education institutions in the UK are, quite rightly, largely autonomous.
(lb) In a fully justified sense; truly, perfectly, actually.
#Coming before the indefinite article and an attributive adjective. (Now largely merged with moderative senses, below.)
#*1898 , (Charles Gavrice), Nell of Shorne Mills :
#*:"My little plot has been rather successful, after all, hasn't it?" "Quite a perfect success," said Drake.
#*2001 , Paul Brown, The Guardian , 7 February:
#*:While the government claims to lead the world with its plans to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, the figures tell quite a different story.
#With plain adjectives, past participles, and adverbs.
#*
#*:“My Continental prominence is improving,” I commented dryly. ¶ Von Lindowe cut at a furze bush with his silver-mounted rattan. ¶ “Quite so,” he said as dryly, his hand at his mustache. “I may say if your intentions were known your life would not be worth a curse.”
#*2010 , Dave Hill, The Guardian , 5 November:
#*:London Underground is quite unique in how many front line staff it has, as anyone who has travelled on the Paris Metro or New York Subway will testify.
#Coming before the definite article and an attributive superlative.
#*1910 , ‘(Saki)’, "The Soul of Laploshka", Reginald in Russia :
#*:Laploshka was one of the meanest men I have ever met, and quite one of the most entertaining.
#*1923 , "The New Pictures", Time , 8 October:
#*:Scaramouche has already been greeted as the finest French Revolution yet brought to the screen-and even if you are a little weary of seeing a strongly American band of sans-culottes demolish a pasteboard Paris, you should not miss Scaramouche, for it is quite the best thing Rex Ingram has done since The Four Horsemen.
#Before a noun preceded by an indefinite article; now often with ironic implications that the noun in question is particularly noteworthy or remarkable.
#*1830 , Senate debate, 15 April:
#*:To debauch the Indians with rum and cheat them of their land was quite a Government affair, and not at all criminal; but to use rum to cheat them of their peltry, was an abomination in the sight of the law.
#*2011 , Gilbert Morris, The Crossing :
#*:“Looks like you and Clay had quite a party,” she said with a glimmer in her dark blue eyes.
#Before a noun preceded by the definite article.
#*1871 , (Anthony Trollope), (The Eustace Diamonds) :
#*:It is quite the proper thing for a lady to be on intimate, and even on affectionate, terms with her favourite clergyman, and Lizzie certainly had intercourse with no clergyman who was a greater favourite with her than Mr. Emilius.
#*2006 , Sherman Alexie, "When the story stolen is your own", Time , 6 February:
#*:His memoir features a child named Tommy Nothing Fancy who suffers from and dies of a seizure disorder. Quite the coincidence, don't you think?
#
To a moderate extent or degree; somewhat, rather.
Having much distance from one terminating point on an object or an area to another terminating point .
:
*
, title=(The Celebrity), chapter=5
, passage=We expressed our readiness, and in ten minutes were in the station wagon, rolling rapidly down the long drive, for it was then after nine. We passed on the way the van of the guests from Asquith.}}
*{{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham), title=(The China Governess)
, chapter=17 Having great duration.
:
*{{quote-magazine, date=2013-07-20, volume=408, issue=8845, magazine=(The Economist)
, title= Seemingly lasting a lot of time, because it is boring or tedious or tiring.
*1877 , (Anna Sewell), (Black Beauty),
*:What I suffered with that rein for four long months in my lady's carriage, it would be hard to describe, but I am quite sure that, had it lasted much longer, either my health or my temper would have given way.
*
, title=(The Celebrity), chapter=2
, passage=I had occasion […] to make a somewhat long business trip to Chicago, and on my return […] I found Farrar awaiting me in the railway station. He smiled his wonted fraction by way of greeting, […], and finally leading me to his buggy, turned and drove out of town. I was completely mystified at such an unusual proceeding.}}
Not short; tall.
*
*:The colonel and his sponsor made a queer contrast: Greystone [the sponsor] long and stringy, with a face that seemed as if a cold wind was eternally playing on it.
(label) Possessing or owning stocks, bonds, commodities or other financial instruments with the aim of benefiting of the expected rise in their value.
:
(label) Of a fielding position, close to the boundary (or closer to the boundary than the equivalent short position).
That land beyond the baseline (and therefore is out ).
:
(label) Occurring or coming after an extended interval; distant in time; far away.
*(Edmund Spenser) (c.1552–1599)
*:That we may us reserve both fresh and strong / Against the tournament, which is not long .
Over a great distance in space.
For a particular duration.
* {{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=May-June, author=
, title= For a long duration.
* 1594 , (William Shakespeare), i 3
*{{quote-book, year=1922, author=(Michael Arlen), title=
, passage=The world was awake to the 2nd of May, but Mayfair is not the world, and even the menials of Mayfair lie long abed.}}
*
(linguistics) A long vowel.
(programming) A long integer variable, twice the size of an int or a short and half of a long long.
(finance) An entity with a long position in an asset.
(music) A note formerly used in music, one half the length of a large, twice that of a breve.
To await, to aspire, to desire greatly (something to occur or to be true)
* 1922 , (Margery Williams), (The Velveteen Rabbit)
(archaic) On account of, because of.
* 1603 , (John Florio), translating Michel de Montaigne, Essays , II.8:
(archaic) To be appropriate to, to pertain or belong to.
* 1590 , (Edmund Spenser), The Faerie Queene , III.3:
* about 1591 , (William Shakespeare), The Taming of the Shrew , IV, 4:
As a verb quite
is .As a noun long is
hair; fur; coat.quite
English
Alternative forms
* quight (obsolete)Etymology 1
A development of (quit), influence by (etyl) quite.Adverb
(-)Usage notes
* This is a non-descriptive qualifier'', similar to fairly and rather and somewhat. Used where a plain adjective needs to be modified, but cannot be qualified. When spoken, the meaning can vary with the tone of voice and stress. ''He was quite big can mean anything from "not exactly small" to "almost huge".Synonyms
* absolutely, fully, thoroughly, totally, utterlyAntonyms
* (to a great extent) slightlyDerived terms
* quite a fewEtymology 2
From (etyl) quite.Statistics
*Anagrams
* quiet English degree adverbs English heteronyms English manner adverbs 1000 English basic words ----long
English
(wikipedia long)Etymology 1
From (etyl) long, lang, from (etyl) longe, long, .Adjective
(er)citation, passage=The face which emerged was not reassuring. […]. He was not a mongol but there was a deficiency of a sort there, and it was not made more pretty by a latter-day hair cut which involved eccentrically long elf-locks and oiled black curls.}}
Out of the gloom, passage=[Rural solar plant] schemes are of little help to industry or other heavy users of electricity. Nor is solar power yet as cheap as the grid. For all that, the rapid arrival of electric light to Indian villages is long overdue. When the national grid suffers its next huge outage, as it did in July 2012 when hundreds of millions were left in the dark, look for specks of light in the villages.}}
Chapter 23
Usage notes
* Wide'' is usually used instead of ''long when referring to a horizontal dimension (left to right). * Tall'' or ''high'' are usually used instead of ''long'' when referring to positive vertical dimension (upwards), and ''deep when referring to negative vertical dimension (downwards).Synonyms
* (having much distance from one point to another) deep (vertically downwards), extended, high (vertically upwards), lengthy, tall * (having great duration) extended, lengthy, prolongedAntonyms
* (having much distance from one point to another) low (vertically upwards), shallow (vertically upwards or downwards), short * (having great duration) brief, short * (finance) shortDerived terms
* * as the day is long * daylong, dayslong * long arm of the law * long game * long gun * longhand * long-haul * long paddock * long pig * long row to hoe * long shot * long vehicle * long-waisted * long white radish * the long and short * yearlong, yearslongAdverb
(er)David Van Tassel], [http://www.americanscientist.org/authors/detail/lee-dehaan Lee DeHaan
Wild Plants to the Rescue, volume=101, issue=3, magazine=(American Scientist) , passage=Plant breeding is always a numbers game.
- I stay too long : but here my father comes.
“Piracy”: A Romantic Chronicle of These Days, chapter=Ep./4/2
Synonyms
* (over a great distance) a long way, far * (for a long duration) a long timeAntonyms
* (over a great distance) a short distance, a short way * (for a long duration) an instant, a minute, a moment, a second, a short time, not longSee also
* far * wide * broadNoun
(en noun)- A long is typically 64 bits in a 32-bit environment.
- Every uptick made the longs cheer.
See also
* broad * wideEtymology 2
From (etyl) longen, from (etyl) .Verb
(en verb)- She longed for him to come back.
- The Rabbit sighed. He thought it would be a long time before this magic called Real happened to him. He longed to become Real, to know what it felt like; and yet the idea of growing shabby and losing his eyes and whiskers was rather sad.
Usage notes
* This is a catenative verb that takes the to infinitive . SeeSynonyms
* (desire greatly) ache, yearnDerived terms
* longingEtymology 3
Aphetic form of (etyl) gelang; the verb later reinterpreted as an aphetic form of belong.Adjective
(-)- I am of opinion that in regard of these debauches and lewd actions, fathers may, in some sort, be blamed, and that it is only long of them.
Verb
(en verb)- A goodly Armour, and full rich aray, / Which long'd to Angela, the Saxon Queene, / All fretted round with gold, and goodly wel beseene.
- Tis well, and hold your owne in any case / With such austeritie as longeth to a father.