Word.ws English Dictionary

arselong

arselong adverb: backwards; on one's arse.

Adverb

arselong (not comparable)

  1. (UK, dialectal) Backwards; on one's arse.
    • Heave they did, all unopposed, and tumbled arselong when the bar came about. Even as they rolled and cursed, the whistling petered; [...]1981, John Barth, Giles goat-boy
    Antonyms:
    headlong

Antonyms of arselong

Forms of arselong

alternative formarseling
alternative formarselings

Origin of arselong

Alteration (after headlong) of arseling, from Middle English *arsling, from Old English earsling (“backwards, on the back”), equivalent to arse + -ling. Cognate with Dutch aarzeling, aarzelings, German ärschling, ärschlings.

Questions about arselong

What does arselong mean?
Arselong means backwards; on one's arse.
What part of speech is arselong?
Arselong is an adverb.

Words near arselong in the dictionary

  1. arselicks
  2. arseling
  3. arselings
  4. arseload
  5. arseloads
  6. arselong
  7. arsemunch
  8. arsemuncher
  9. arsemunchers
  10. arsemunches
  11. Arsen

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: arselong (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “arselong.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/arselong. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.