> as lemmas

1606 R. Knolles tr. J. Bodin Six Bks. Common-weale iv. i. 420 The Dictatorship in Rome continued no longer then the charge required, which neuer passed six monethes at the longest [Fr. pour le plus].

a1644 F. Quarles Solomons Recantation (1645) iii. 16 Vnconstant earth! O, is it not enough Thy days are ev'll at best; and but a puffe At longest?

1711 Ld. Shaftesbury Characteristicks II. v. 350 Our own Marble, or Stuff (whate'er it be, of which we are compos'd) wears out in seven, or, at the longest, in twice seven Years.

1783 C. Bryant Flora Diætetica ix. 324 He ought to have all his Wheat into ground by the end of October at longest, before the birds find a scarcity of food.

1837 N.Y. Q. Mag. Apr. 358 My intention was to impress my visiter with the belief that I was particularly engaged, so that he could not..think of sitting more than two minutes and a half at longest.

1874 E. B. Pusey Lenten Serm. xii. 235 Short, at the longest, were the life of man.

1918 H. G. Wells In Fourth Year viii. 101 Every few hundred miles at the longest the machine must come down for petrol.

1955 Washington Post 9 May 18/1 The President's tenure of office is a relatively short one; at longest, it can last for eight years.

2013 Vancouver Province (Nexis) 31 Mar. a47 A team hoping to land them this summer could only have offered seven years at the longest.