"centuries-long" meaning in English

{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "century<alt:centuries>",
        "3": "long"
      },
      "expansion": "centuries + -long",
      "name": "suffix"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From centuries + -long.",
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "-"
      },
      "expansion": "centuries-long (not comparable)",
      "name": "en-adj"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "adj",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English terms suffixed with -long",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1942, Harry Parker, Britain Afloat and Ashore: Pictures and Engravings of Our National Life and Achievements. […] (publication number twenty-one), London: The Print Collectors’ Club, […], pages 20–21",
          "text": "No city in the world has a more varied history and interest, and in none can better be traced the centuries-long line of steady progress from barbarism to civilisation.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1942, Curt Ries, “The Betrayal of a Caste”, in The Self-Betrayed: Glory and Doom of the German Generals, New York, N.Y.: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, page 213",
          "text": "For he had not only handed in his resignation as Chief of Staff; he had gone a step further. He had left the Army, given up his title of general. He had done something that had scarcely ever happened during the centuries-long history of the Prussian Army.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1989, David Freedberg, The Power of Images: Studies in the History and Theory of Response, Chicago, Ill., London: The University of Chicago Press, published 1991, page 153",
          "text": "In his great survey of the material, Lenz Kriss-Rettenbeck concluded that “there is probably no comparable form that enjoys the same structural consistency and provides more effectively valid a mode of signification, in terms of its centuries-long use in the most various cultures and language groups, at all social levels of the Catholic world, and at all conceivable aesthetic levels.”",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Lasting for centuries."
      ],
      "id": "en-centuries-long-en-adj-G0xNiEOl",
      "links": [
        [
          "centuries",
          "century"
        ]
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "centurieslong"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "not-comparable"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "centuries-long"
}

{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "century<alt:centuries>",
        "3": "long"
      },
      "expansion": "centuries + -long",
      "name": "suffix"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From centuries + -long.",
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "-"
      },
      "expansion": "centuries-long (not comparable)",
      "name": "en-adj"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "adj",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English adjectives",
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English terms suffixed with -long",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English uncomparable adjectives"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1942, Harry Parker, Britain Afloat and Ashore: Pictures and Engravings of Our National Life and Achievements. […] (publication number twenty-one), London: The Print Collectors’ Club, […], pages 20–21",
          "text": "No city in the world has a more varied history and interest, and in none can better be traced the centuries-long line of steady progress from barbarism to civilisation.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1942, Curt Ries, “The Betrayal of a Caste”, in The Self-Betrayed: Glory and Doom of the German Generals, New York, N.Y.: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, page 213",
          "text": "For he had not only handed in his resignation as Chief of Staff; he had gone a step further. He had left the Army, given up his title of general. He had done something that had scarcely ever happened during the centuries-long history of the Prussian Army.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1989, David Freedberg, The Power of Images: Studies in the History and Theory of Response, Chicago, Ill., London: The University of Chicago Press, published 1991, page 153",
          "text": "In his great survey of the material, Lenz Kriss-Rettenbeck concluded that “there is probably no comparable form that enjoys the same structural consistency and provides more effectively valid a mode of signification, in terms of its centuries-long use in the most various cultures and language groups, at all social levels of the Catholic world, and at all conceivable aesthetic levels.”",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Lasting for centuries."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "centuries",
          "century"
        ]
      ],
      "tags": [
        "not-comparable"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "word": "centurieslong"
    }
  ],
  "word": "centuries-long"
}