a1400 (a1325) Cursor Mundi (Vesp.) 6372 (MED) O him i mai yow all noght tell, For it war ouerlang [a1400 Fairf. ouer lange; a1400 Trin. Cambr. to longe] to duell.

c1400 (c1378) W. Langland Piers Plowman (Laud 581) (1869) B. xi. 216 (MED) It is ouerlonge ar logyke any lessoun assoille.

c1450 Mandeville's Trav. (Coventry) (1973) 40 (MED) Geste..made ouerlonge..maketh men werie and lothe to here.

a1500 ( J. Yonge tr. Secreta Secret. (Rawl.) (1898) 138 (MED) Now yewe the not aftyr thy desyris, in mete, in drynke, in company of women, ne in ouer-longe Slepynges, as doth a Swyn.

1560 J. Daus tr. J. Sleidane Commentaries f. xxiii The decree is ouerlonge, but the summe is this.

c1590 Descr. Lancaster (1875) i. 13 What may be done at the Quarterly Sessions..for the reformation of these manifold Enormities knowe we not; what hathe bin done heretofore we knowe to well by overlonge experience.

1614 W. Raleigh Hist. World i. iii. vi. §2. 61 The shortest life doth oftentimes appeare vnto us ouer-long.

1649 E. Sparke in J. Shute Sarah & Hagar Ep. Ded. sig. a^v By thus improving an enforced Non-term, and over-long Vacation, in such a promulgating the best Laws.

1704 J. Harris Lexicon Technicum I Moyeneau..is a small flat Bastion, commonly placed in the middle of an over-long Curtain, by which the Bastions at the Extremities are not well defended from the Small-shot, by reason of their Distance.

1826 J. F. Cooper Last of Mohicans II. iv. 65 This is a firm and straight, though a light step, and not over long.

1887 Pall Mall Gaz. 12 Oct. 2/1 The voyage to Lechlade is overlong for a single day.

1930 M. Baring Robert Peckham vi. 82 The tempers of the two monarchs had been frayed by an overlong friction.

1996 Courier-Mail (Brisbane) 8 Jan. 24/4 A welcome treat during this overlong and, at times, laboured revue.

c1275 (?c1250) Owl & Nightingale (Calig.) (1935) 450 Þe more ich singe, Þe more i mai..Ac noþeles noȝt ouerlonge.

c1400 (c1378) W. Langland Piers Plowman (Laud 581) (1869) B. xx. 358 (MED) He lat hem ligge ouerlonge and loth is to chaunge hem.

a1470 T. Malory Morte Darthur (Winch. Coll.) 312 I drede that we dwelle ovirlonge frome the seege.

1526 Bible (Tyndale) Acts xxvii. 9 Because..we had overlonge fasted.

1584 R. Scot Discouerie Witchcraft iii. xix. 71 It were follie to staie ouerlong in the confutation of that, which is not in the nature of things.

a1617 S. Hieron Penance for Sinne in Wks. (1620) II. 230 Not to remayne abroad ouer-long.

1671 J. Sharp Midwives Bk. vi. v. 368 But when children suck so over-long, as three or four years, I seldome hear of any of them that ever come to good.

1711 E. Settle City-ramble ii. 28 Thou art overlong at they Pot, Don Juan.

1828 W. Scott Fair Maid of Perth iv, in Chron. Canongate 2nd ser. I. 112 She has stopped my mouth overlong with her pruderies and her scruples.

1892 R. L. Stevenson & L. Osbourne Wrecker xi. 183 This characteristic scene, which has delayed me overlong.

1903 W. E. Collins in Cambr. Mod. Hist. II. xvii. 610 The nobles complained to Frederick I that the see of Lund had been over-long vacant.

1980 J. L. Carr Month in Country 37 Unless you want to, you needn't stop overlong.

a1470 T. Malory Morte Darthur (Winch. Coll.) 702 Sir Trystram behylde the marynars, how they sayled overlonge [v.r. ouer longe] Humbir.