Etimology
From Middle English laste, latst, syncopated variant of latest.
adjective
last (not comparable)
Final, ultimate, coming after all others of its kind.
Most recent, latest, last so far.
Farthest of all from a given quality, character, or condition; most unlikely, or least preferable.
Being the only one remaining of its class.
Supreme; highest in degree; utmost.
Lowest in rank or degree.
Examples
“Eyes Wide Shut” was the last film to be directed by Stanley Kubrick.
Then everybody once more knelt, and soon the blessing was pronounced. The choir and the clergy trooped out slowly, […] , down the nave to the western door. […] At a seemingly immense distance the surpliced group stopped to say the last prayer.
The last time I saw him, he was married.
I have received your note dated the 17th last, and am responding to say that […]
She told him the last news about little Georgy, and how he was gone to spend that very day with his sisters in the country.
In America alone, people spent $170 billion on “direct marketing”—junk mail of both the physical and electronic varieties—last year.
He is the last person to be accused of theft.
The last person I want to meet is Helen.
More rain is the last thing we need right now.
Japan is the last empire.
Contending for principles of the last importance.
Three contestants will win awards, but the last prize is just a book voucher.
I will not wish you to consider me but as the last and lowest of mankind.
The whole community from the patrician master to the last beggar knew that in the five months when the generous bosom of the steppe throbbed with creative life, they must toil for the subsistence of all […]
Lesser, but still important executives had offices without corner windows. The rank below this had offices without windows at all. […] The last rank had desks out in an open room.
Russia is a very different place than here. […] Even the last soldier knows who Malevich was, and what the Black Square is, since they were taught this in school.
Related words
synonyms
(final): at the end, caboose, dernier (dated), final, tail end, terminal, ultimate, lattermost
(most recent): latest, most recent
determiner
last
The (one) immediately before the present.
(of days of the week or months of the year) Closest in the past, or closest but one if the closest was very recent; of days, sometimes thought to specifically refer to the instance closest to seven days (one week) ago, or the most recent instance before seven days (one week) ago.
Examples
We went there last year.
I was last to arrive.
It's Wednesday, and the party was last Tuesday; that is, not yesterday, but eight days ago.
When you say last Monday, do you mean the Monday just gone, or the one before that?
adverb
last (not comparable)
Most recently.
(sequence) after everything else; finally
Examples
When we last met, he was based in Toronto.
How long is't now since last yourself and I / Were in a mask?
I'll go last as I have to add the butter last.
last but not least
Pleased with his idol, he commends, admires, / Adores; and, last, the thing adored desires.
Related words
synonyms
(after everything else): finally, lastly; see also Thesaurus:lastly
Etimology
From Middle English lasten, from Old English lǣstan, from Proto-West Germanic *laistijan, from Proto-Germanic *laistijaną. Cognate with German leisten (“yield”).
verb
last (third-person singular simple present lasts, present participle lasting, simple past and past participle lasted)
(intransitive) To endure, continue over time.
(intransitive) To hold out, continue undefeated or entire.
(intransitive, slang, of a man) To purposefully refrain from orgasm
(transitive, obsolete) To perform, carry out.
Examples
Summer seems to last longer each year.
They seem happy now, but that won't last long.
And love will last as pure and wholeAs when he loved me here in Time,And at the spiritual primeRewaken with the dawning soul.
Thus the red damask curtains which now shut out the fog-laden, drizzling atmosphere of the Marylebone Road, had cost a mere song, and yet they might have been warranted to last another thirty years. A great bargain also had been the excellent Axminster carpet which covered the floor; […].
One of the earliest space weather events on record occurred in September 1859, when a massive solar eruption crashed into the Earth's magnetosphere, triggering a geomagnetic storm that lasted for days.
I don't know how much longer we can last without reinforcements.
Related words
synonyms
continue
endure
survive
antonyms
disintegrate
dissipate
fall apart
wear out
related terms
everlasting
lasting
Etimology
From Old English lǣste, Proto-Germanic *laistiz. Compare Swedish läst, German Leisten Dutch leest, Proto-Germanic *laistaz (“footprint”).
noun
last (plural lasts)
A tool for shaping or preserving the shape of shoes.
Examples
How is an in-your-face black leather thigh-high lace-up boot with a four-inch spike heel like a man's black calf lace-up oxford? They are both made on a last, the wood or plastic foot-shaped form that leather is stretched over and shaped to make a shoe.
verb
last (third-person singular simple present lasts, present participle lasting, simple past and past participle lasted)
To shape with a last; to fasten or fit to a last; to place smoothly on a last.
Examples
to last a boot
Etimology
From Middle English last, from Old English hlæst (“burden, load, freight”), from Proto-Germanic *hlastuz (“burden, load, freight”), from Proto-Indo-European *kleh₂- (“to put, lay out”). Cognate with West Frisian lêst, Dutch last, German Last, Swedish last, Icelandic lest.
noun
last (plural lasts or lasten)
(obsolete) A burden; load; a cargo; freight.
(obsolete) A measure of weight or quantity, varying in designation depending on the goods concerned.
(obsolete) An old English (and Dutch) measure of the carrying capacity of a ship, equal to two tons.
A load of some commodity with reference to its weight and commercial value.
Examples
Now we so quietly followed our businesse, that in three moneths wee made three or foure Last of Tarre, Pitch, and Sope ashes [...].
The last of wool is twelve sacks.
The tonnage of the Duyfken of Harmensz's fleet is given as 25 and 30 lasten.