headlong

Etymology

From Middle English hedlong, alteration of hedling, heedling, hevedlynge (“headlong”), assimilated to long. More at headling.

adv

1. With the head first or down.
2. With an unrestrained forward motion.
   Figures out today show the economy plunging headlong into recession.
   When his eyes were clear again, he saw the monster had passed and was rushing landward. Big iron upper-works rose out of this headlong structure, and from that twin funnels projected, and spat a smoking blast shot with fire into the air. It was the torpedo-ram, Thunder Child, steaming headlong, coming to the rescue of the threatened shipping. 1898, H.G. Wells, “The "Thunder Child."”, in The War of the Worlds, Leipzig: Bernhard Tauchnitz, retrieved 2022-11-24, page 175
   Realizing he is now boxed in on all sides, Hipper decides the only remaining card he has to play is to sell his ships as dearly as possible. The remaining German ships make a hard turn southeast, and drive headlong at the Grand Fleet. It is a brave gesture, but only eight of the ships emerge from the pall of smoke that roughly marks the original German line of advance. Two more emerge minutes later, but that is all. 17 October 2018, Drachinifel, 24:24 from the start, in Last Ride of the High Seas Fleet - Battle of Texel 1918, archived from the original on 2022-08-04
3. Rashly; precipitately; without deliberation; in haste, hastily.

adj

1. Precipitous.
2. Plunging downwards head foremost.
   On sighting their prey, they check their flight and hurtle in a headlong dive to the sea. 1993, Michael Hume Jackson, Galapagos, a Natural History, page 143
3. Rushing forward without restraint.
4. (figurative) Reckless; impetuous.

verb

1. (transitive) To precipitate.
   If a stranger be setting his pace and face toward some deep pit, or steep rock — such a precipice as the cliffs of Dover — how do we cry aloud to have him return ? yet in mean time forget the course of our own sinful ignorance, that headlongs us to confusion. 1862, Thomas Adams, The works of Thomas Adams
   Carriages went up and down in endless pageant. Trolley-cars rushed by, clanging and grinding as they headlonged into the side streets. 1905, Liberty Hyde Bailey, The outlook to nature