Word.ws English Dictionary

long john

long john noun: a bar-shaped, yeast-risen pastry similiar to a doughnut, and either coated entirely with glaze or topcoated with cake icing. Also the alternative form of long-john.

long john: a bar-shaped, yeast-risen pastry similiar to a doughnut, and either coated entirely with glaze or...
Image: Darb02, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun (1)

long john (plural long johns)

  1. A bar-shaped, yeast-risen pastry similiar to a doughnut, and either coated entirely with glaze or topcoated with cake icing.
    • DONUT HOUSE (B) — 496 Selkirk Avenue, Winnipeg 4. Glazed donuts busters, long johns, fried cinnamons, assorted whipped cream donuts, party snacks, bread, pastries.1962, Manitoba Trade Directory, page 114, column 1
    • Was it the effect of the bulletproof glaze on the windows, or had dusk really turned the sky a sheer, sugary violet? The air in the small office carried the smell of freshly glazed donuts from the discount bakery next door. When footage of protesters picketing the clinic played on the evening news...2001, Mary O’Connell, “Saint Dymphna”, in Living with Saints, New York, N.Y.: Grove Press, →ISBN, page 4

Noun (2) capitalized: Long John

Long John (plural Long Johns)

  1. An ant tree of the species Triplaris surinamensis.
    • About the centre are large trees such as “Long John” and Wild Cacao which stand well above the other growth, forming ideal resting places for the “chicken hawks” as they wait to swoop down on young gauldings.1919, The Journal of the Board of Agriculture of British Guiana, page 218
    • Where clearances have been made in the original forest and secondary growth has taken possession, Pampwood (Cecropia peltata) and Long John (Triplaris surinamensis) are common.1927, The Gardeners' Chronicle, page 70, column 3
  2. A type of long coffee table.
    • Aunt Matilda set the coffee tray down on the Long John table.1964, Daisy Thomson, To Love and Honor, New York, N.Y.: Pyramid Books, published 1974, →ISBN, pages 55–56
    • 109 A pleasant ‘Long John’ coffee table.1969, David Joel, Furniture Design Set Free: The British Furniture Revolution from 1851 to the Present Day, J. M. Dent & Sons Limited, →ISBN, page xiii
  3. Alternative letter-case form of long john (a pastry).
    • The complete assembly provides means for sheeting, rolling and cutting of the dough, and is suitable for a great variety of products, such as butterfly buns, coffee cakes and rings, egg biscuits, snowflake rolls, yeast raised plain and twisted doughnuts, cinnamon buns, Long Johns, and many others.1938, Minutes of the General Managers Conference, Chicago, Ill.: The W. E. Long Co., page 362
    • OLD WAY: This worker and another turned out only 40[…]Long Johns hourly in former hand production.1955, “Long John Donuts at 10 Dozen a Minute”, in Food Engineering, volume 27, page 113

Also used as

long john is also the alternative form of long-john.

Examples of long john in a sentence

  • When footage of protesters picketing the clinic played on the evening news, there was usually some slacker off to the side, leaning on his sign and eating a long john.2001, Mary O’Connell, “Saint Dymphna”, in Living with Saints, New York, N.Y.: Grove Press, →ISBN, page 4:
  • He drank more coffee in a paper cup and ate a long john covered in maple-sugar icing and dialed Marley in San Francisco.2006, Baker H. Morrow, “The Luger”, in A Tropical Place Like that: Stories of Mexico, Albuquerque, N.M.: University of New Mexico Press...
  • He sits on the lot, stuffing down a long john, sipping coffee, thinking:[…]Out in his truck, Bernie sits, eating long johns,[…]2008, Jack Smith, Hog to Hog, Huntsville, Tex.: Texas Review Press, →ISBN, pages 4, 5, 7, and 92:
  • “Bring The Kid in—he can sleep on my couch.”[…]Clay ate a long john and fell asleep as soon as he hit the couch, rolled up on his side and facing the wall.2021, Chris Fabry, chapter 32, in Sarah Mason Rische, editor, A Piece of the Moon, Tyndale House Publishers, →ISBN, →LCCN, page 299:

Forms of long john

plurallong johns
pluralLong Johns

Questions about long john

What does long john mean?
Long john means a bar-shaped, yeast-risen pastry similiar to a doughnut, and either coated entirely with glaze or topcoated with cake icing.
How do you use long john in a sentence?
When footage of protesters picketing the clinic played on the evening news, there was usually some slacker off to the side, leaning on his sign and eating a long john.
What part of speech is long john?
Long john is a noun.
What is the plural of long john?
The plural of long john is long johns.

Words near long john in the dictionary

  1. Long Islander
  2. Long Islanders
  3. Long Islands
  4. Long Itchington
  5. Long Jetty
  6. long john
  7. long johns
  8. long jump
  9. long jumped
  10. long jumper
  11. long jumpers

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: long john (page history and authors); Long John (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:

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