headlong
Syllables: head·longUK/ˈhɛd.lɒŋ//ˈhɛd.lɔŋ/
headlong adverb: with the head first or down.
Adverb
headlong (not comparable)
- With the head first or down.
- [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...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
- Synonyms:
- head first
- Antonyms:
- feet first
- With an unrestrained forward motion.
- Figures out today show the economy plunging headlong into recession.
- 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...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))
- Rashly; precipitately; without deliberation; in haste, hastily.
Adjective
headlong (comparative more headlong, superlative most headlong)
- Precipitous.
- Their path led them past sharp cliffs, along narrow trails unknown and untrodden, past headlong boulders strewn across barren, treeless, wind-haunted heights.1961, Norma Lorre Goodrich, “Beowulf”, in The Medieval Myths, New York: The New American Library, page 35
- Plunging downwards head foremost.
- On sighting their prey, they check their flight and hurtle in a headlong dive to the sea.1993, Michael Hume Jackson, Galapagos, a Natural History, page 143
- Rushing forward without restraint.
- Bumps, bruises, and scratches are often the result of their efforts to outstrip each other in the headlong race.1900, James George Frazer, The Golden Bough, volume 3, page 243
- Reckless; impetuous.
- “Time is up,” cried another boy, more headlong than head-monitor.1869, R[ichard] D[oddridge] Blackmore, Lorna Doone: A Romance of Exmoor. […], volume II, London: Sampson Low, Son, & Marston, […], →OCLC
Verb
headlong (third-person singular simple present headlongs, present participle headlonging, simple past and past participle headlonged)
- To precipitate.
- 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.1862, Thomas Adams, The works of Thomas Adams
- Carriages went up and down in endless pageant. Trolley-cars rushed by, clanging and grinding as they headlonged into the side streets.1905, Liberty Hyde Bailey, The outlook to nature
headlong meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Malayalam and Kannada
headlong in Tamil
- in haste, hastily, without deliberation
- தலைதெறிக்க talaiteṟikka
headlong in Urdu
- جلد باز, پرجوش, تند خو, اندھادھند, بےتحاشا, دفعتاً
headlong in Malayalam
- head first, on one's head
- തലകുത്തി, തല കിഴുക്കാംപാടെ, കിഴുക്കനെ, കിഴുക്കാംപാട്, തല കീഴായി
- without, forethought, without thinking
- എടുത്തുചാടി, അവിവേകമായി, ആലോചനയില്ലാതെ, വീണ്ടുവിചാരമില്ലാതെ, മുൻപിൻ നോക്കാതെ, അവിമർശം
- breakneck, whirlwind, reckless
- അതിവേഗമുള്ള, സാഹസികമായ, മരണപ്പാച്ചിൽ പാഞ്ഞുള്ള, ആപൽക്കരമായ വേഗത്തിലുള്ള, ചുഴലിക്കാറ്റുപോലുള്ള, ലെക്കുകെട്ട
headlong in Kannada
- ರಭಸದ, ಬಲುಜೋರಿನ, ದುಡುಕಿನ, ಮುಂದಾಲೋಚನೆ ಇಲ್ಲದ, ಆತುರದ, ವಿವೇಚನೆ ಇಲ್ಲದ
Examples of headlong in a sentence
- 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.1895–1897, H[erbert] G[eorge] Wells, “The ‘Thunder Child’”, in The War of the Worlds, London: William Heinemann, published 1898, →OCLC...
- The remaining German ships make a hard turn southeast, and drive headlong at the Grand Fleet.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...
- 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.2021 November 18, Matt McFarland, “We tried Tesla’s ‘full self-driving.’ Here’s what happened”, in CNN:
Synonyms of headlong
Antonyms
Forms of headlong
| Adjective | |
|---|---|
| comparative | more headlong |
| superlative | most headlong |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | headlongs |
| present participle | headlonging |
| past participle | headlonged |
| past | headlonged |
Origin of headlong
From Middle English hedlong, alteration of hedling, heedling, hevedlynge (“headlong”), assimilated to long. More at headling.
Words formed from headlong
Questions about headlong
- What does headlong mean?
- Headlong means with the head first or down.
- What is headlong in Tamil?
- Headlong in Tamil is தலைதெறிக்க (talaiteṟikka). See Headlong meaning in Tamil.
- How do you use headlong in a sentence?
- 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.
- What part of speech is headlong?
- Headlong can be an adverb, an adjective or a verb.
- How do you pronounce headlong?
- Headlong is pronounced /ˈhɛd.lɒŋ/ (UK).
Words near headlong in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: headlong (page history and authors); headlong (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); headlong (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); headlong (Kannada Wiktionary) (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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-headlong.ogg.
Cite this entry: “headlong.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/headlong. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.