Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A sudden thrust or pass, as with a sword.
  • noun A sudden forward movement or plunge.
  • intransitive verb To make a sudden thrust or pass.
  • intransitive verb To move with a sudden thrust.
  • intransitive verb To cause (someone) to lunge.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun In fencing, a thrust.
  • noun Any sudden forward movement of a person or thing resembling the lunge of a fencer; a plunge; a lurch: as, the lunge of a coach.
  • To thrust, as in fencing, with the sword or foil; make a thrust forward; plunge.
  • To hide; skulk.
  • To cause to move in a plunging or jumping manner, as a horse held by a long rein, for exercise or training.
  • noun A long rope used to train a horse; also, the circular track or ring where horses are trained by cantering them around the edge of the ring in one direction with the aid of a lunge.
  • noun Same as longe.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A sudden thrust or pass, as with a sword.
  • intransitive verb To make a lunge.
  • transitive verb To cause to go round in a ring, as a horse, while holding his halter.
  • noun (Zoöl.) Same as namaycush.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A sudden forward movement, especially with a sword.
  • noun A long rope or flat web line, more commonly referred to as a lunge line, approximately 20-30 feet long, attached to the bridle, lungeing cavesson, or halter of a horse and is used to control the animal while lungeing.
  • noun An exercise performed by stepping forward one leg while kneeling with the other leg, then returning back to a standing position.
  • noun A fish, the namaycush.
  • verb To make a sudden forward movement (present participle: lunging).
  • verb To longe or work a horse in a circle around a handler (present participle: lunging or lungeing).

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb make a thrusting forward movement
  • noun (fencing) an attacking thrust made with one foot forward and the back leg straight and with the sword arm outstretched forward
  • noun the act of moving forward suddenly

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[From alteration of obsolete allonge, to thrust, from French allonger, from Old French alongier, to lengthen : a-, to (from Latin ad-; see ad–) + long, long (from Latin longus; see del- in Indo-European roots).]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From French allonge, from Old French alonge, from alongier, from Vulgar Latin *allongare, from ad + Late Latin longare, from Latin longus.

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