Late

• POS: Adjective, Adverb

CIDE DICTIONARY

Late, a. [OE. lat slow, slack, AS. læt; akin to OS. lat, D. laat late, G. lass weary, lazy, slack, Icel. latr, Sw. lat, Dan. lad, Goth. lats, and to E. let, v. See Let to permit, and cf. Alas, Lassitude.].

•  Coming after the time when due, or after the usual or proper time; not early; slow; tardy; long delayed; as, a late spring.  [1913 Webster]
•  Far advanced toward the end or close; as, a late hour of the day; a late period of life.  [1913 Webster]
•  Existing or holding some position not long ago, but not now; recently deceased, departed, or gone out of office; as, the late bishop of London; the late administration.  [1913 Webster]
•  Not long past; happening not long ago; recent; as, the late rains; we have received late intelligence.  [1913 Webster]
•  Continuing or doing until an advanced hour of the night; as, late revels; a late watcher.  [1913 Webster]

Late, adv. [AS. late. See Late, a.].

•  After the usual or proper time, or the time appointed; after delay; as, he arrived late; -- opposed to early.  [1913 Webster]
•  Not long ago; lately.  [1913 Webster]
•  Far in the night, day, week, or other particular period; as, to lie abed late; to sit up late at night.  [1913 Webster]

Of late, in time not long past, or near the present; lately; as, the practice is of late uncommon. -- Too late, after the proper or available time; when the time or opportunity is past.

OXFORD DICTIONARY

Late, adj. & adv.
--adj.
1 after the due or usual time; occurring or done after the proper time (late for dinner; a late milk delivery).
2 a far on in the day or night or in a specified time or period. b far on in development.
3 flowering or ripening towards the end of the season (late strawberries).
4 (prec. by the or my, his, etc.) no longer alive or having the specified status (my late husband; the late president).
5 of recent date (the late storms).
--adv.
1 after the due or usual time (arrived late).
2 far on in time (this happened later on).
3 at or till a late hour.
4 at a late stage of development.
5 formerly but not now (late of the Scillies).

Idiom

at the latest as the latest time envisaged (will have done it by six at the latest). late in the day colloq. at a late stage in the proceedings, esp. too late to be useful. late Latin Latin of about AD 200-600. the latest the most recent news, fashion, etc. (have you heard the latest?).

Derivative

lateness n.

Etymology

OE l{aelig}t (adj.), late (adv.) f. Gmc

THESAURUS

Late

after time, ahead of time, anachronistic, ancient, antedated, arrested, asleep, asleep in Jesus, at rest, back, backward, beforehand, behind, behind time, behindhand, belated, belatedly, bereft of life, blocked, breathless, bygone, called home, carrion, checked, cold, croaked, current, dated, dead, dead and gone, death-struck, deceased, deep into, defunct, delayed, delayed-action, demised, departed, departed this life, destitute of life, detained, dilatory, done for, early, erstwhile, exanimate, extinct, fallen, far on, finished, food for worms, fore, foredated, former, formerly, fresh, gone, gone to glory, gone west, held up, heretofore, hung up, ill-considered, ill-seasoned, ill-timed, immemorial, impeded, improper, in a bind, in abeyance, inanimate, inappropriate, inauspicious, inconvenient, inexpedient, infelicitous, inopportune, intempestive, intrusive, irrelevant, jammed, last, late lamented, lately, later, latish, latter, latterly, launched into eternity, lifeless, mal a propos, malapropos, martyred, metachronistic, misdated, mistimed, moratory, never on time, new, newly come, no more, none too soon, obstructed, of late, of yesterday, off base, old, olden, once, onetime, out of date, out of line, out of phase, out of season, out of time, overdue, parachronistic, passed on, past, past due, postdated, preceding, prehistoric, premature, previous, previously, primeval, primitive, prior, prochronistic, pushing up daisies, quondam, recent, recently, released, reposing, resting easy, retarded, sainted, set back, sleeping, slow, slowed down, smitten with death, sometime, still, stillborn, stopped, taken away, taken off, tardily, tardy, then, too late, too soon, unbefitting, unfavorable, unfit, unfitting, unfortunate, unhandy, unhappy, unlucky, unpropitious, unpunctual, unready, unripe, unseasonable, unsuitable, untimely, untoward, whilom, with the Lord, with the saints, without life, without vital functions, wrong

ROGET THESAURUS

Late

The Past

N the past, past time, days of yore, times of yore, days of old, times of old, days past, times past, days gone by, times gone by, bygone days, old times, ancient times, former times, fore time, the good old days, the olden time, good old time, auld lang syne, eld, antiquity, antiqueness, status quo, time immemorial, distance of time, remote age, remote time, remote past, rust of antiquity, paleontology, paleography, paleology, paleozoology, palaetiology, archaeology, paleogeography, paleoecology, paleobotany, paleoclimatoogy, archaism, antiquarianism, medievalism, Pre-Raphaelitism, paleography, retrospect, retrospection, looking back, memory, laudator temporis acti, medievalist, Pre-Raphaelite, antiquary, antiquarian, archmologist, Oldbuck, Dryasdust, ancestry, past, gone, gone by, over, passed away, bygone, foregone, elapsed, lapsed, preterlapsed, expired, no more, run out, blown over, has-been, that has been, extinct, antediluvian, antebellum, never to return, gone with the wind, exploded, forgotten, irrecoverable, obsolete, former, pristine, quondam, ci-devant, late, ancestral, foregoing, last, latter, recent, over night, preterperfect, preterpluperfect, looking back, retrospective, retroactive, archaeological, paleo-, archaeo-, formerly, of old, of yore, erst, whilom, erewhile, time was, ago, over, in the olden time, anciently, long ago, long since, a long while, a long time ago, years ago, yesteryear, ages ago, some time ago, some time since, some time back, yesterday, the day before yesterday, last year, ultimo, lately, retrospectively, ere now, before now, till now, hitherto, heretofore, no longer, once, once upon a time, from time immemorial, from prehistoric times, in the memory of man, time out of mind, already, yet, up to this time, ex post facto, time was, the time has been, the time hath been, you can't go home again, fuimus Troes, fruit Ilium, hoc erat in more majorum, O call back yesterday, bid time return, tempi passati, the eternal landscape of the past, ultimus Romanorum, what's past is prologue, whose yesterdays look backward with a smile, Time with reference to a particular period.

Newness

N newness, novelty, recency, immaturity, youth, gloss of novelty, innovation, renovation, modernism, mushroom, parvenu, latest fashion, new, novel, recent, fresh, green, young, evergreen, raw, immature, unsettled, yeasty, virgin, untried, unhandseled, untrodden, untrod, unbeaten, fire-new, span-new, late, modern, neoteric, hypermodern, nouveau, new-born, nascent, neonatal, new-fashioned, new-fangled, new-fledged, of yesterday, just out, brand-new, up to date, up to the minute, with it, fashionable, in fashion, in, hip, vernal, renovated, sempervirent, sempervirid, fresh as a rose, fresh as a daisy, fresh as paint, spick and span, newly, afresh, anew, lately, just now, only yesterday, the other day, latterly, of late, not long ago, a short time ago, di novello tutto par bello, nullum est jam dictum quod non dictum est prius, una scopa nuova spazza bene.

Lateness

N lateness, tardiness, delay, delation, cunctation, procrastination, deferring, deferral, postponement, adjournment, prorogation, retardation, respite, pause, reprieve, stay of execution, protraction, prolongation, Fabian policy, medecine expectante, chancery suit, federal case, leeway, high time, moratorium, holdover, late, tardy, slow, behindhand, serotine, belated, postliminious, posthumous, backward, unpunctual, untimely, delayed, postponed, dilatory, delayed, in abeyance, late, lateward, backward, late in the day, at sunset, at the eleventh hour, at length, at last, ultimately, after time, behind time, after the deadline, too late, too late for, slowly, leisurely, deliberately, at one's leisure, ex post facto, sine die, nonum prematur in annum, against the sunbeams serotine and lucent, ie meglio tardi che mai, deliberando saepe perit occasio, lateness, tardiness, delay, delation, cunctation, procrastination, deferring, deferral, postponement, adjournment, prorogation, retardation, respite, pause, reprieve, stay of execution, protraction, prolongation, Fabian policy, medecine expectante, chancery suit, federal case, leeway, high time, moratorium, holdover, late, tardy, slow, behindhand, serotine, belated, postliminious, posthumous, backward, unpunctual, untimely, delayed, postponed, dilatory, delayed, in abeyance, late, lateward, backward, late in the day, at sunset, at the eleventh hour, at length, at last, ultimately, after time, behind time, after the deadline, too late, too late for, slowly, leisurely, deliberately, at one's leisure, ex post facto, sine die, nonum prematur in annum, against the sunbeams serotine and lucent, ie meglio tardi che mai, deliberando saepe perit occasio.

Death

N death, decease, demise, dissolution, departure, obit, release, rest, quietus, fall, loss, bereavement, mortality, morbidity, end of life &c, cessation of life &c, loss of life, extinction of life, ebb of life, death warrant, death watch, death rattle, death bed, stroke of death, agonies of death, shades of death, valley of death, jaws of death, hand of death, last breath, last gasp, last agonies, dying day, dying breath, dying agonies, chant du cygne, rigor mortis, Stygian shore, King of terrors, King Death, Death, doom, Hell's grim Tyrant, euthanasia, break up of the system, natural death, natural decay, sudden death, violent death, untimely end, watery grave, debt of nature, suffocation, asphyxia, fatal disease, death blow, necrology, bills of mortality, obituary, death song, dead, lifeless, deceased, demised, departed, defunct, extinct, late, gone, no more, exanimate, inanimate, out of the world, taken off, released, departed this life, dead and gone, dead as a doornail, dead as a doorpost, dead as a mutton, dead as a herring, dead as nits, launched into eternity, gone to one's eternal reward, gone to meet one's maker, pushing up daisies, gathered to one's fathers, numbered with the dead, dying, moribund, morient, hippocratic, in articulo, in extremis, in the jaws of death, in the agony of death, going off, aux abois, one one's last legs, on one's death bed, at the point of death, at death's door, at the last gasp, near one's end, given over, booked, with one foot in the grave, tottering on the brink of the grave, stillborn, mortuary, deadly, post obit, post mortem, life ebbs, life fails, life hangs by a thread, one's days are numbered, one's hour is come, one's race is run, one's doom is sealed, Death knocks at the door, Death stares one in the face, the breath is out of the body, the grave closes over one, sic itur ad astra, de mortuis nil nisi bonum, dulce et decorum est pro patria mori, honesta mors turpi vita potior, in adamantine chains shall death be bound, mors ultima linea rerum est, ominia mors aequat, Spake the grisly Terror, the lone couch of this everlasting sleep, nothing is certain but death and taxes.