English

Prepositional phrase

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.
   • L'Estrange

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

   • 1898, Winston Churchill, chapter 4, in The Celebrity:

     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. Lincoln, chapter 6, in Mr. Pratt's Patients:

     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 all their troubles, at last they lived happily ever after.‎ — After exhausting all possibilities, Holmes was at last satisfied the problem was unsolvable.‎

Translations

See also

• at long last
• about time

Synonyms

• sooner or later