[f. LIFE sb. + LONG.]
† 1. = LIVELONG. Obs. rare–1.
1757. Mrs. Griffith, Lett. Henry & Frances (1767), I. 84. I wished for you … in vain all night, the life-long night.
2. Lasting or continuing for a lifetime.
1855. [Miss Cobbe], Ess. Intuitive Morals, 151. The glorious thirst after Knowledge never finds its life-long draught sweet enough.
1866. J. H. Newman, Gerontius, § 2. The history of that dreary, lifelong fray.
1875. Jowett, Plato (ed. 2), I. 267. Plato … in his life-long effort to work out the great intellectual puzzle of his age.
3. as adv. During the whole length of life.
1875. Lowell, Poem at Cambridge (Mass.) Centennial. The boy feels deeper meanings thrill his ear, That tingling through his pulse life-long shall run.
