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headlong

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

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English

Etymology

From Middle English hedlong, alteration of hedling, heedling, hevedlynge (“headlong”), assimilated to long. More at headling.

Pronunciation

Adverb

headlong (not comparable)

  1. With the head first or down.
    Synonym: head first
    Antonym: feet first
    • 1816, [Walter Scott], chapter I, in The Antiquary. […], volume I, Edinburgh: […] James Ballantyne and Co. for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, →OCLC, page 4:
      [A] sharp-looking old dame, […] inhabited a "laigh [low] shop," anglicé [in English], a cellar, opening to the High-street by a strait and steep stair, at the bottom of which she sold tape, thread, needles, skeans of worsted, coarse linen cloth, and such feminine gear, to those who had the courage and skill to descend to the profundity of her dwelling, without falling headlong themselves, or throwing down any of the numerous articles which, piled on each side of the descent, indicated the profession of the trader below.
  2. With an unrestrained forward motion.
    Figures out today show the economy plunging headlong into recession.
    • 1895–1897, H[erbert] G[eorge] Wells, “The ‘Thunder Child’”, in The War of the Worlds, London: William Heinemann, published 1898, →OCLC, (please specify the page number(s)):
      When his eyes were clear again, he saw the monster had passed and was rushing landward. Big iron upper-works rose out of this headlong structure, and from that twin funnels projected, and spat a smoking blast shot with fire into the air. It was the torpedo-ram, Thunder Child, steaming headlong, coming to the rescue of the threatened shipping.
    • 2018 October 17, Drachinifel, 24:24 from the start, in Last Ride of the High Seas Fleet - Battle of Texel 1918‎, archived from the original on 4 August 2022:
      Realizing he is now boxed in on all sides, Hipper decides the only remaining card he has to play is to sell his ships as dearly as possible. The remaining German ships make a hard turn southeast, and drive headlong at the Grand Fleet. It is a brave gesture, but only eight of the ships emerge from the pall of smoke that roughly marks the original German line of advance. Two more emerge minutes later, but that is all.
    • 2021 November 18, Matt McFarland, “We tried Tesla’s ‘full self-driving.’ Here’s what happened”, in CNN‎:
      I felt deja vu as I recalled a video in which a Tesla owner slammed on the brakes after his car appeared set on crashing headlong into a construction site.
  3. Rashly; precipitately; without deliberation; in haste, hastily.

Antonyms

Translations

Adjective

headlong (comparative more headlong, superlative most headlong)

  1. Precipitous.
    • 1961, Norma Lorre Goodrich, “Beowulf”, in The Medieval Myths, New York: The New American Library, page 35:
      Their path led them past sharp cliffs, along narrow trails unknown and untrodden, past headlong boulders strewn across barren, treeless, wind-haunted heights.
  2. Plunging downwards head foremost.
    • 1993, Michael Hume Jackson, Galapagos, a Natural History, page 143:
      On sighting their prey, they check their flight and hurtle in a headlong dive to the sea.
  3. Rushing forward without restraint.
    • 1900, James George Frazer, The Golden Bough, volume 3, page 243:
      Bumps, bruises, and scratches are often the result of their efforts to outstrip each other in the headlong race.
  4. (figuratively) Reckless; impetuous.

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

headlong (third-person singular simple present headlongs, present participle headlonging, simple past and past participle headlonged)

  1. (transitive) To precipitate.
    • 1862, Thomas Adams, The works of Thomas Adams:
      If a stranger be setting his pace and face toward some deep pit, or steep rock — such a precipice as the cliffs of Dover — how do we cry aloud to have him return ? yet in mean time forget the course of our own sinful ignorance, that headlongs us to confusion.
    • 1905, Liberty Hyde Bailey, The outlook to nature:
      Carriages went up and down in endless pageant. Trolley-cars rushed by, clanging and grinding as they headlonged into the side streets.

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