long-winded
Americanadjective
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talking or writing at tedious length.
long-winded after-dinner speakers.
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continued to a tedious length in speech or writing.
another of his long-winded election speeches.
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able to breathe deeply; not tiring easily.
adjective
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tiresomely long
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capable of energetic activity without becoming short of breath
Other Word Forms
- long-windedly adverb
- long-windedness noun
Etymology
Origin of long-winded
First recorded in 1580–90
Explanation
Someone who's long-winded takes way too long to tell a story or give a speech. Once your long-winded history teacher gets started on an anecdote about the Civil War, everyone in the class sighs deeply. A long-winded explanation is one that uses many words when just a few would do. And your grandfather's long-winded toasts before Thanksgiving dinner inevitably end in everyone's food getting cold before they can start eating it. An older meaning of this word was "able to do something for a long time without losing one's breath," but the modern definition dates from the 1580s, when it specifically meant "given to lengthy speeches."
Vocabulary lists containing long-winded
Idioms and Expressions, List 4
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Idioms and Expressions, List 4
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The Elephant Girl
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Rose has few friends, perhaps because she has few unexpressed thoughts—and those thoughts tend toward the long-winded and uncompromising.
From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 20, 2026
What has gotten out of hand is this litany of long-winded toasts.
From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 29, 2025
And awards night host Nate Bargatze implored winners to keep their long-winded speeches snappy with a running gag that saw his charity donation docked if speech-givers went over their allotted time.
From BBC • Sep. 15, 2025
His answers were frequently long-winded, muddled and incoherent.
From Los Angeles Times • Sep. 14, 2025
All her classmates are complaining about it—Bronte’s protracted digressions about human nature, the subplots about Jane’s friends at Lowood School, the long-winded, “unrealistic” dialogue.
From "Orphan Train" by Christina Baker Kline
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
