long suit
 長牌,長處
 Long a. [Compar. Longer superl. Longest ]
 1. Drawn out in a line, or in the direction of length; protracted; extended; as, a long line; -- opposed to short, and distinguished from broad or wide.
 2. Drawn out or extended in time; continued through a considerable tine, or to a great length; as, a long series of events; a long debate; a long drama; a long history; a long book.
 3. Slow in passing; causing weariness by length or duration; lingering; as, long hours of watching.
 4. Occurring or coming after an extended interval; distant in time; far away.
 The we may us reserve both fresh and strong
 Against the tournament, which is not long.   --Spenser.
 5. Having a length of the specified measure; of a specified length; as, a span long; a yard long; a mile long, that is, extended to the measure of a mile, etc.
 6. Far-reaching; extensive. “ Long views.”
 7. Phonetics Prolonged, or relatively more prolonged, in utterance; -- said of vowels and syllables. See Short, a., 13, and Guide to Pronunciation, §§ 22, 30.
 8. Finance & Com. Having a supply of stocks or goods; prepared for, or depending for a profit upon, advance in prices; as, long of cotton.  Hence, the phrases: to be, or go, long of the market, to be on the long side of the market, to hold products or securities for a rise in price, esp. when bought on a margin.  Contrasted to short.
 Note: ☞ Long is used as a prefix in a large number of compound adjectives which are mostly of obvious meaning; as, long-armed, long-beaked, long-haired, long-horned, long-necked, long-sleeved, long-tailed, long- worded, etc.
 In the long run, in the whole course of things taken together; in the ultimate result; eventually.
 Long clam Zool., the common clam (Mya arenaria) of the Northern United States and Canada; -- called also soft-shell clam and long-neck clam. See Mya.
 Long cloth, a kind of cotton cloth of superior quality.
 Long clothes, clothes worn by a young infant, extending below the feet.
 Long division. Math. See Division.
 Long dozen, one more than a dozen; thirteen.
 Long home, the grave.
 Long measure, Long meter. See under Measure, Meter.
 Long Parliament Eng. Hist., the Parliament which assembled Nov. 3, 1640, and was dissolved by Cromwell, April 20, 1653.
 Long price, the full retail price.
 Long purple Bot., a plant with purple flowers, supposed to be the Orchis mascula. --Dr. Prior.
 Long suit (a) Whist, a suit of which one holds originally more than three cards. --R. A. Proctor. (b)  One's most important resource or source of strength; as, as an entertainer, her voice was her long suit.
 Long tom. (a) A pivot gun of great length and range, on the dock of a vessel. (b) A long trough for washing auriferous earth. [Western U.S.] (c) Zool. The long-tailed titmouse.
 Long wall Coal Mining, a working in which the whole seam is removed and the roof allowed to fall in, as the work progresses, except where passages are needed.
 Of long, a long time. [Obs.] --Fairfax.
 To be long of the market, or To go long of the market, To be on the long side of the market, etc. Stock Exchange, to hold stock for a rise in price, or to have a contract under which one can demand stock on or before a certain day at a stipulated price; -- opposed to short in such phrases as, to be short of stock, to sell short, etc. [Cant] See Short.
 To have a long head, to have a farseeing or sagacious mind.
 Suit n.
 1. The act of following or pursuing, as game; pursuit. [Obs.]
 2. The act of suing; the process by which one endeavors to gain an end or an object; an attempt to attain a certain result; pursuit; endeavor.
    Thenceforth the suit of earthly conquest shone.   --Spenser.
 3. The act of wooing in love; the solicitation of a woman in marriage; courtship.
 Rebate your loves, each rival suit suspend,
 Till this funereal web my labors end.   --Pope.
 4. Law The attempt to gain an end by legal process; an action or process for the recovery of a right or claim; legal application to a court for justice; prosecution of right before any tribunal; as, a civil suit; a criminal suit; a suit in chancery.
    I arrest thee at the suit of Count Orsino.   --Shak.
    In England the several suits, or remedial instruments of justice, are distinguished into three kinds -- actions personal, real, and mixed.   --Blackstone.
 5. That which follows as a retinue; a company of attendants or followers; the assembly of persons who attend upon a prince, magistrate, or other person of distinction; -- often written suite, and pronounced
 6. Things that follow in a series or succession; the individual objects, collectively considered, which constitute a series, as of rooms, buildings, compositions, etc.; -- often written suite, and pronounced
 7. A number of things used together, and generally necessary to be united in order to answer their purpose; a number of things ordinarily classed or used together; a set; as, a suit of curtains; a suit of armor; a suit of clothes; a three-piece business suit. “Two rogues in buckram suits.”
 8. Playing Cards One of the four sets of cards which constitute a pack; -- each set consisting of thirteen cards bearing a particular emblem, as hearts, spades, clubs, or diamonds; also, the members of each such suit held by a player in certain games, such as bridge; as, hearts were her long suit.
 To deal and shuffle, to divide and sort
 Her mingled suits and sequences.   --Cowper.
 9. Regular order; succession. [Obs.]
    Every five and thirty years the same kind and suit of weather comes again.   --Bacon.
 10. Hence: (derived from def 7) Someone who dresses in a business suit, as contrasted with more informal attire; specifically, a person, such as business executive, or government official, who is apt to view a situation formalistically, bureaucratically, or according to formal procedural criteria; -- used derogatively for one who is inflexible, esp. when a more humanistic or imaginative approach would be appropriate.
 Out of suits, having no correspondence. [Obs.] --Shak.
 Suit and service Feudal Law, the duty of feudatories to attend the courts of their lords or superiors in time of peace, and in war to follow them and do military service; -- called also suit service. --Blackstone.
 Suit broker, one who made a trade of obtaining the suits of petitioners at court. [Obs.]
 Suit court O. Eng. Law, the court in which tenants owe attendance to their lord.
 Suit covenant O. Eng. Law, a covenant to sue at a certain court.
 Suit custom Law, a service which is owed from time immemorial.
 Suit service. Feudal Law See Suit and service, above.
 To bring suit. Law (a) To bring secta, followers or witnesses, to prove the plaintiff's demand. [Obs.] (b) In modern usage, to institute an action.
 To follow suit. (a) Card Playing See under Follow, v. t.  (b) To mimic the action of another person; to perform an action similar to what has preceded; as, when she walked in, John left the room and his wife followed suit.
 long suit (a) Card Playing the suit8 of which a player has the largest number of cards in his hand; as, his long suit was clubs, but his partner insisted on making hearts trumps.. Hence: [fig.] that quality or capability which is a person's best asset; as, we could see from the mess in his room that neatness was not his long suit.
 strong suit same as long suit, (b). “I think our strong suit is that we can score from both the perimeter and the post.” --Bill Disbrow (basketball coach) 1998.  “Rigid ideological consistency has never been a strong suit of the Whole Earth Catalogue.” --Bruce Sterling (The Hacker Crackdown, 1994)
 long suit
      n 1: in a hand, the suit having the most cards
      2: an asset of special worth or utility; "cooking is his forte"
         [syn: forte, strong suit, metier, specialty, speciality,
          strong point, strength] [ant: weak point]