долго ли, коротко ли

• ДОЛГО ЛИ, КОРОТКО ЛИ folk

[AdvP; Invar; adv; fixed WO]

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⇒ for some (unknown and inconsequential) amount of time:

- for a time, a long time or a short time;

- for a while, it doesn't matter how long;

- how long (s.o. was doing sth. < sth. was going on etc>) is no matter.

     ♦ Долго ли, коротко ли они так жили, только в начале 1776 года, в тот самый кабак, где они в свободное время благодушествовали, зашел бригадир (Салтыков-Щедрин 1). They lived thus for a time, a long time or a short time, but in 1776, near the first of the year, the brigadier dropped into the very same tavern where they whiled away their leisure hours (1a).