long standing
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The origin of this phrase seems to be illustrated by the following passage:–a 1568 Ascham Scholem. i. (Arb.) 34 Except a very fewe, to whom peraduenture blood and happie parentage, may perchance purchase a long standing vpon the stage.]
1. Continuance for a long time in a settled and recognized position, rank, etc. Chiefly in phr. of long standing.
| 1601 Sir W. Cornwallis Ess. ii. xxix. (1631) 36 Their discent..from families of long standings. 1678 Bunyan Pilgr. i. (C.P.S.) 83 This Fair therefore is an Ancient thing, of long standing. 1713 Guardian (1756) I. xxix. 124 Mothers of long standing, undesigning maids, and contented widows. 1833 H. Martineau Berkeley i. ii. 24 A favorite of longer standing was in everybody's thoughts for at least three weeks. 1844 Dickens Mart. Chuz. xxiv, Thomas is a friend of mine, of rather long-standing. 1855 Macaulay Hist. Eng. xix. IV. 353 Between him and the licensers there was a feud of long standing. |
2. attrib. or compound adj. (hyphened).
| 1814 Jane Austen Mansf. Park II. ix. 196 In spite of every long-standing expectation. 1848 Mill Pol. Econ. i. xi. 208 A long-standing and hereditary confidence in the safety of funds when trusted out of the owner's hands. 1871 James Duty & Doctrine 20 The afflictions of many upright, deserving, poor, long-standing curates. 1878 Browning Poets Croisic cxxxii, La Rogue..Had a long-standing little debt to pay. 1888 Burgon Twelve Gd. Men II. xi. 336 He determined to carry into effect a long-standing wish to have a parish ‘Mission’. 1898 Allbutt's Syst. Med. V. 655 It [i.e. splenic enlargement] is greatest in long-standing cases. 1900 Longman's Mag. Dec. 139 They had a long-standing account to settle with these bush heathen. 1975 Times 15 Jan. 14/1 The holing of the Japanese supertanker, Showa Maru, on a rock off Singapore last week is bound to reactivate sharply a long-standing conflict of views over control of the nearby Malacca Straits. |