HEADLONG

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does headlong mean? 

• HEADLONG (adjective)
  The adjective HEADLONG has 2 senses:

1. excessively quick

2. with the head foremost

  Familiarity information: HEADLONG used as an adjective is rare.

• HEADLONG (adverb)
  The adverb HEADLONG has 3 senses:

1. with the head foremost

2. at breakneck speed

3. in a hasty and foolhardy manner

  Familiarity information: HEADLONG used as an adverb is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• HEADLONG (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Excessively quick

Synonyms:

hasty; headlong

Context example:

a headlong rush to sell

Similar:

hurried (moving rapidly or performed quickly or in great haste)

Sense 2

Meaning:

With the head foremost

Synonyms:

headfirst; headlong

Context example:

a headlong dive into the pool

Similar:

forward (at or near or directed toward the front)

• HEADLONG (adverb)

Sense 1

Meaning:

With the head foremost

Synonyms:

headfirst; headlong

Context example:

the runner slid headlong into third base

Sense 2

Meaning:

At breakneck speed

Synonyms:

headlong; precipitately

Context example:

burst headlong through the gate

Pertainym:

headlong (excessively quick)

Sense 3

Meaning:

In a hasty and foolhardy manner

Synonyms:

headlong; rashly

Context example:

he fell headlong in love with his cousin

 Context examples 

We threw ourselves against it; with a crash it burst open, and we almost fell headlong into the room.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

“Just your old headlong way! You might have been in earnest in striving to get on in the world, without being so very sudden with a timid, loving, inexperienced girl. Poor Dora!”

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

His voice was hoarse; his look that of a man who is just about to burst an insufferable bond and plunge headlong into wild license.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

So he walked forward to the tree, but just as he came under the first branches they bent down and twined around him, and the next minute he was raised from the ground and flung headlong among his fellow travelers.

(The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum)

I had not time to be afraid, but as the blow still hung impending, leaped in a trice upon one side, and missing my foot in the soft sand, rolled headlong down the slope.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

I was the first that could plod in the public eye with a load of genial respectability, and in a moment, like a schoolboy, strip off these lendings and spring headlong into the sea of liberty.

(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

At the same instant the Welshmen upon the left, led on by the Scotch earl, had charged out from among the rocks which sheltered them, and by the fury of their outfall had driven the Spaniards in front of them in headlong flight down the hill.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

There was no pausing on the brink; no looking down, or looking back; I was gone, headlong, before I had sense to say a word to her.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Think of his misery; think of his danger—look at his state when left alone; remember his headlong nature; consider the recklessness following on despair—soothe him; save him; love him; tell him you love him and will be his.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

The wind suddenly shifted to the north-east, and the remnant of the sea-fog melted in the blast; and then, mirabile dictu, between the piers, leaping from wave to wave as it rushed at headlong speed, swept the strange schooner before the blast, with all sail set, and gained the safety of the harbour.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)