not long for this world

English

Alternative forms

• not long for the world

Pronunciation

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Adjective

not long for this world (not comparable)

1. (idiomatic) Unlikely to endure for much more time.
   • 1787, John Quincy Adams, Charles Francis Adams, editor, Life in a New England Town, 1787, 1788: Diary of John Quincy Adams (1903), page 109:

     Townsend went there with us, but found himself so unwell that he went home very early. His cough has return'd, with several disagreeable symptoms. I fear exceedingly that he is not long for this world.

   • 1843 April, Thomas Carlyle, “ch. 6, Hero-Worship”, in Past and Present, American edition, Boston, Mass.: Charles C[offin] Little and James Brown, published 1843, →OCLC, book I (Proem):

     He thinks that said soul will have to be resuscitated from its asphyxia; that if it prove irresuscitable, the man is not long for this world.

   • 1928, Dorothy L. Sayers, “The Undignified Melodrama of the Bone of Contention”, in Dorothy L. Sayers: the complete stories, published 2002, page 92:

     But I've had a warning, and I'm not long for this world."
     "Not long for this world? Oh, nonsense, Plunkett. You mustn't talk like that. A touch of indigestion, that's what you've got, I expect.

   • 2006, Richard Peck, The Teacher's Funeral: A Comedy in Three Parts, page 188:

     Though Aunt Maud had always maintained she was not long for this world, she outlived all her generation.

   • 2019 February 27, Drachinifel, 31:46 from the start, in The Battle of Samar - Odds? What are those?‎^[1], archived from the original on 3 November 2022:

     With Gambier Bay and Hoel sinking and Roberts not much longer for this world, the Johnston is now set upon by four cruisers and a number of destroyers. The ship's crew patch holes as fast as they can, but the ship is literally gradually being taken apart by repeated salvos. The fact that this particular set of Japanese ships is STILL using armor-piercing instead of high explosive is the only saving grace.

Usage notes

• Only used as a predicate.
• Variant forms substitute for "this world": "here", "this earth", "this life", "these parts", "this world".
• Other variants soften "long", as: "not much longer for this world".

See also

• make old bones
• one's days are numbered