in the long run
- 1Over an extended period, once all the effects have had time to appear; eventually, when the final outcome becomes clear.
Like judging a marathon runner by the finish line rather than by who leads at the first mile.
Cutting corners on materials may save cash today, but it costs far more in the long run.
In the long run, the merger strengthened both companies despite a rocky first year.
Note
Its force comes from a contrast with the short run, and writers often make that contrast explicit. John Maynard Keynes punctured the phrase in A Tract on Monetary Reform (1923): "In the long run we are all dead." Arthur C. Clarke's The Exploration of Space (1951) sets the pair side by side, "in the long run — and often in the short one," showing that the second half can shrink to "the short one."
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