length

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. The state, quality, or fact of being long. See Usage Note at strength.
2. n. The measurement of the extent of something along its greatest dimension: the length of the boat.
3. n. A piece, often of a standard size, that is normally measured along its greatest dimension: a length of cloth.
4. n. A measure used as a unit to estimate distances: won the race by a length.
5. n. Extent or distance from beginning to end: the length of a novel; the length of a journey.
6. n. The amount of time between specified moments; the duration: the length of a meeting.
7. n. Extent or degree to which an action or policy is carried. Often used in the plural: went to great lengths to prove his point.
8. n. Linguistics The duration of a vowel.
9. n. Linguistics The duration of a syllable.
10. n. The vertical extent of a garment. Often used in combination: knee-length; floor-length.
11. idiom. at length After some time; eventually: At length we arrived at our destination.
12. idiom. at length For a considerable time; fully: spoke at length about the court ruling.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. The property of being long or extended in a single direction; also, that which is long.
2. n. Distance along a line, as measured, for example, upon the circumference of a wheel that rolls over it: as, the length of a road, a river, or the arc of a curve.
3. n. The magnitude of the greatest principal axis of a body or figure; one of the dimensions of a body, the others being breadth and thickness. See dimension, 1. Thus, the length of a stick of timber is not its longest measurement, between opposite angles, but is the shortest distance between the ends. Every body has three principal axes, which are capable of being determined with mathematical precision; and in most cases we can see what they are near enough for practical purposes. The distance between the extremities of the longest of these three axes is the length of the body.
4. n. Reach; power of reaching; extent of range: as, the length of one's vision or of a view.
5. n. Extent of or in time; duration; continuance: as, the length of a day or a year, or of life; the length of a battle or a performance; a discourse of tedious length.
6. n. In orthoëpy and prosody:
7. n. The time occupied in uttering a vowel or syllable; quantity.
8. n. The quality of a vowel as long or short, according to the conventional distinction of long and short in English pronunciation.
9. n. The quality of a syllable as metrically accented or unaccented in modern or accentual poetry. See long, adjective
10. n. A piece or portion of the extent of anything in space or time; a part of what is extended or elongated: as, a length of rope; a dress-length; to cut anything into short lengths: often used specifically of a definite portion, of known extent, of the thing spoken of, as of an acting drama (namely, forty or forty-two lines): as, an actor's part of six lengths; won by a length (that is, of the horse, boat, etc., engaged in the contest).
11. n. In archery, the distance from the archer to the target he is to shoot at.
12. n. After a time; at last; at the end, or at a point of transition: as, at length he came to a spring; at length they were subdued.
13. n. To go to the extent of; rise to the pitch or height of: commonly used of inordinate action or speech: as, he went to the length of tearing down his house, of denying his identity, or of sacrificing his own interests.
14. To extend; lengthen.
15. n. In the brachiopod shell, the distance from the apex of the more projecting valve axially to the anterior margin.
16. n. In the pelecypod shell, commonly the greatest distance across the shell fore and aft, but more correctly the distance from the beak obliquely along the crescence-line, or line of most rapid growth.
17. n. In cricket: The distance between the bowler's wicket and the spot where the ball pitches: said of a ball bowled.
18. n. The proper distance at which a ball bowled should pitch; a good pitch.

Wiktionary

1. n. The measurement of distance along the longest dimension of an object.
2. n. duration
3. n. horse racing The length of a horse, used to indicate the distance between horses at the end of a race.
4. n. mathematics Distance between the two ends of a line segment.
5. n. cricket The distance down the pitch that the ball bounces on its way to the batsman.
6. n. figuratively : total extent
7. n. part of something that's long, a physical piece of something
8. v. obsolete To lengthen.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. The longest, or longer, dimension of any object, in distinction from breadth or width; extent of anything from end to end; the longest line which can be drawn through a body, parallel to its sides
2. n. A portion of space or of time considered as measured by its length; -- often in the plural.
3. n. The quality or state of being long, in space or time; extent; duration.
4. n. A single piece or subdivision of a series, or of a number of long pieces which may be connected together
5. n. Detail or amplification; unfolding; continuance as, to pursue a subject to a great length.
6. n. obsolete Distance.
7. v. obsolete To lengthen.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. the property of being the extent of something from beginning to end
2. n. size of the gap between two places
3. n. continuance in time
4. n. the linear extent in space from one end to the other; the longest dimension of something that is fixed in place
5. n. a section of something that is long and narrow