belong

Multiple Entries:
  belong    long  

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
belong/bɪˈlɒŋ/

▶verb

• 1 (belong to) be the property of.

  ■ be the rightful possession of; be due to.

• 2 (belong to) be a member of.

  ■ (of a person) fit or be acceptable in a specified place or environment.

• 3 (of a thing) be rightly placed in or assigned to a specified position.

– derivatives
belonging noun,
belongingness noun.

– origin ME: from be- + long ‘belong’, based on OE gelang ‘together with’.

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
long1

▶adjective (longer, longest)

• 1 of a great distance or duration.

  ■ of a specified distance or duration.

  ■ (of a ball in sport) travelling a great distance, or further than expected.

• 2 relatively great in extent.

  ■ having a specified extent.

• 3 Phonetics (of a vowel) categorized as long with regard to quality and length (e.g. in standard British English the vowel /uː/ in food).

  ■ Prosody (of a vowel or syllable) having the greater of the two recognized durations.

• 4 (of odds or a chance) reflecting or representing a low level of probability.

• 5 Finance (of shares or other assets) bought in advance, with the expectation of a rise in price.

  ■ (of a security) maturing at a distant date.

• 6 (of a drink) large, refreshing, and containing little or no alcohol.

• 7 (long on) informal well supplied with.

▶noun

• 1 a long time.

• 2 a long sound, vowel, or syllable.

• 3 (longs) Finance long securities or assets.

▶adverb (longer; longest)

• 1 for a long time.

  ■ at a distant time: long ago.

  ■ throughout a specified period of time: all day long.

• 2 (with reference to the ball in sport) at, to, or over a great distance.

– phrases
as (or so) long as

• 1 during the whole time that.

• 2 provided that.

be long take a long time.
in the long run (or term) eventually.
the long and the short of it all that can or need be said.
long in the tooth rather old. [orig. said of horses, from the recession of the gums with age.]

– derivatives
longish adjective.

– origin OE lang, long (adj.), lange, longe (adv.), of Gmc origin.

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
long2

▶verb (long for/to do) have a strong wish for or to do.

– origin OE langian ‘grow long’, also ‘yearn’, of Gmc origin.