london.localmean.com/long
long
LONG · /lɒŋ/
Local meaning
Time-consuming, tedious, annoying, difficult, or not worth the effort required.
In the MLE-linked slang sense, “long” evaluates an activity, journey, explanation, or situation as taking too much time or effort. By extension it can mean annoying, boring, or unreasonable. The phrase “it’s long” therefore often rejects a plan without literally describing physical length.
Examples in context
- Changing trains three times just to get there is long.
- Filling out the whole form again would be so long.
- I was going to cook, but the recipe looked long.
How it is used
The slang sense often appears after “be”: “that’s long” or “this is long”. Context separates it from ordinary descriptions of distance, duration, or physical length.
Reluctant, annoyed, dismissive, tired, or matter-of-fact.
Travel, chores, forms, plans, queues, explanations, and inconvenient tasks.
Informal conversation where the reason for reluctance is understood.
A person described as “long” may hear it as a personal criticism meaning irritating or difficult.
Spelling and scope
MLE-associated London slang that has spread into wider urban British youth speech and popular media.
Common search forms stay discoverable without claiming that every London community uses one spelling.
Common patterns
- that is long
- so long
- bare long
- this is long for me
Read next
All words →Evidence and further reading
Sources support the definition, history, or usage layer. Local review remains welcome.
- long — MLE slang adjectiveWiktionary contributors
Community lexicographic record of MLE senses involving excessive time, effort, annoyance, or difficulty, with cited usage.
- Using social media to infer the diffusion of an urban contact dialect: A case study of Multicultural London EnglishJournal of Sociolinguistics
Peer-reviewed study of the wider diffusion of MLE-associated vocabulary, with a documented list of 75 lexical items.
- Recent changes in London English: an overview of Multicultural London EnglishComplutense Journal of English Studies
Peer-reviewed overview of MLE vocabulary, grammar, discourse features, and Caribbean and Jamaican English influence.