LATE • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Late

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/leɪt/ Listen

adjective

Late adj. (compar. later, or latter; superl. latest or last)

1.

Coming after the time when due, or after the usual or proper time; not early; slow; tardy; long delayed; as, a late spring.

2.

Far advanced toward the end or close; as, a late hour of the day; a late period of life.

3.

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.

4.

Not long past; happening not long ago; recent; as, the late rains; we have received late intelligence.

5.

Continuing or doing until an advanced hour of the night; as, late revels; a late watcher.

adverb

Late adv.

1.

After the usual or proper time, or the time appointed; after delay; as, he arrived late; opposed to early.

2.

Not long ago; lately.

3.

Far in the night, day, week, or other particular period; as, to lie abed late; to sit up late at night.

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.

See images of 'Late'

Etymology of 'Late'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Late" Quotes from Famous Books

... another sixty thousand men in the colony or on the sea ready to fill the gaps in his advance. Moving over a flat country with plenty of flanking room, it is probable that he would have been in Bloemfontein by Christmas and at the Vaal River late in January. What could the Boers do then? They might remain before Ladysmith, and learn that their capital and their gold mines had been taken in their absence. Or they might abandon the siege and trek back to defend ...

— The Great Boer War • Arthur Conan Doyle

... renounce the sensible idea of testing my future husband ... but be warned! If in the future I am tortured by discovering any glaring defects and odious peculiarities, that what you call my indiscretion might have revealed before it was too late, you will permit me to come and complain to you every day, and you must promise to listen to my endless lamentations as I repeat over and over again. O Valentine, I have learned too late what I might have known in time to save me! Valentine, ...

— The Cross of Berny • Emile de Girardin

... without stopping through the streets of Memphis. As long as she saw houses with lighted windows on each side of the way, and met riotous soldiers and quiet citizens going home from the taverns, or from working late in their workshops, with lanterns in their hands or carried by their slaves—so long her predominant feeling was one of hatred to Publius; and mixed with this was a sentiment altogether new to her—a sentiment that made her blood boil, ...

— Uarda • Georg Ebers

... it reasonable that the Almighty should suspend the everlasting destiny of his creatures upon what they do or omit doing in this life, because men, in earthly transactions, adopt a similar principle. A railroad train is advertised to start at a certain hour. If we are there a minute too late, we lose our opportunity of going on an important journey. We think this reasonable; why, then, argues Dr. Adams, should we think it unreasonable for God to make us lose our chance throughout eternity if we do not take the opportunity during life? God has given us full notice, ...

— Orthodoxy: Its Truths And Errors • James Freeman Clarke

... Until late in the last century it was a common thing for the ruler of a native Eastern state to celebrate his accession to the throne by slaughtering his brothers and uncles. This drastic measure reduced the possibilities of the new ruler ...

— Noble Deeds of the World's Heroines • Henry Charles Moore

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