at last

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at last

1. (idiomatic) After a long time; eventually.

   Now that the dog has stopped barking, perhaps we can at last get some rest.

   After three hundred years had passed, at last the vampire's soul was free.

2. (idiomatic) In the end; finally; ultimately.

   After all their troubles, at last they lived happily ever after.

   After exhausting all possibilities, Holmes was at last satisfied the problem was unsolvable.

   • 1692, Roger L’Estrange, “ (please specify the fable number.) (please specify the name of the fable.)”, in Fables, of Æsop and Other Eminent Mythologists: […], London: […] R[ichard] Sare, […], →OCLC:

     Upon balancing the account, the profit at last will hardly countervail the inconveniences that go along with it.

   • 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter IV, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC, page 46:

     No matter how early I came down, I would find him on the veranda, smoking cigarettes, or […] . And at last I began to realize in my harassed soul that all elusion was futile, and to take such holidays as I could get, when he was off with a girl, in a spirit of thankfulness.

   • 1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter VI, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:

     She was so mad she wouldn't speak to me for quite a spell, but at last I coaxed her into going up to Miss Emmeline's room and fetching down a tintype of the missing Deacon man.

• (after a long time): in due course, sooner or later; see also Thesaurus:eventually
• (in the end): lastly, ultimately; see also Thesaurus:finally

• about time
• at long last

• Lattas, statal