Word.ws English Dictionary

not long for the world

not long for the world is the alternative form of not long for this world.

Meaning of not long for this world

Adjective

not long for this world (not comparable)

  1. (idiomatic) Unlikely to endure for much more time.
    • Townsend went there with us, but found himself so unwell that he went home very early. His cough has return'd, with several disagreeable symptoms. I fear exceedingly that he is not long for this world.1787, John Quincy Adams, Charles Francis Adams, editor, Life in a New England Town, 1787, 1788: Diary of John Quincy Adams (1903), page 109

Questions about not long for the world

What is not long for the world the alternative form of?
Not long for the world is the alternative form of not long for this world.

Words near not long for the world in the dictionary

  1. not leave a stone unturned
  2. not leave one's thoughts
  3. not likely
  4. not long
  5. not long for
  6. not long for the world
  7. not long for this world
  8. not look a day over
  9. not make any bones about
  10. not much
  11. not much chop

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: not long for the world (page history and authors); not long for this world (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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