of the distant or comparatively distant past; "We met once long ago"; "they long ago forsook their nomadic life"; "left for work long ago"; "he has long since given up mountain climbing"; "This name has long since been forgotten"; "lang syne" is Scottish
continuing forever or indefinitely; "the ageless themes of love and revenge"; "eternal truths"; "life everlasting"; "hell's perpetual fires"; "the unending bliss of heaven"
the discipline that records and interprets past events involving human beings; "he teaches Medieval history"; "history takes the long view"
all that is remembered of the past as preserved in writing; a body of knowledge; "the dawn of recorded history"; "from the beginning of history"
a record or narrative description of past events; "a history of France"; "he gave an inaccurate account of the plot to kill the president"; "the story of exposure to lead"
the aggregate of past events; "a critical time in the school's history"
the continuum of events occurring in succession leading from the past to the present and even into the future; "all of human history"
at or near the beginning of a period of time or course of events or before the usual or expected time; "early morning"; "an early warning"; "early diagnosis"; "an early death"; "took early retirement"; "an early spring"; "early varieties of peas and tomatoes mature before most standard varieties"
being or occurring at an early stage of development; "in an early stage"; "early forms of life"; "early man"; "an early computer"
of an early stage in the development of a language or literature; "the Early Hebrew alphabetical script is that used mainly from the 11th to the 6th centuries B.C."; "Early Modern English is represented in documents printed from 1476 to 1700"
very young; "at an early age"
expected in the near future; "look for an early end to the negotiations"
before the usual time or the time expected; "she graduated early"; "the house was completed ahead of time"
past times (especially in the phrase `in days of old')
of a very early stage in development; "Old English is also called Anglo Saxon"; "Old High German is High German from the middle of the 9th to the end of the 11th century"
old in experience; "an old offender"; "the older soldiers"
of long duration; not new; "old tradition"; "old house"; "old wine"; "old country"; "old friendships"; "old money"
(used especially of persons) having lived for a relatively long time or attained a specific age; "an old man's eagle mind"--William Butler Yeats; "his mother is very old"; "a ripe old age"; "how old are you?"
belonging to times long past especially of the historical period before the fall of the Western Roman Empire; "ancient history"; "ancient civilizations such as those of the Etruscans and Sumerians"; "ancient Greece"