Word.ws English Dictionary

the long and the short

the long and the short is the alternative form of the long and short.

Meaning of the long and short

Noun

the long and short

  1. (usually) The gist; the essence or substance; the most important or salient features.
    • The speech went on for hours, but the long and short of it is that not much has changed since last year.
    Synonyms:
    digest, summary, upshot

Questions about the long and the short

What is the long and the short the alternative form of?
The long and the short is the alternative form of the long and short.

Words near the long and the short in the dictionary

  1. the lights are on, but nobody's home
  2. the line is busy
  3. the living daylights out of
  4. the living shit out of
  5. the long and short
  6. the long and the short
  7. the long way around the barn
  8. the longest pole knocks the persimmon
  9. the longest purse knocks the persimmon
  10. the Loop
  11. the Lord helps those that help themselves

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: the long and the short (page history and authors); the long and short (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: “the long and the short.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/the_long_and_the_short. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.