War and Peace

English

Etymology

From the title of the novel War and Peace by the Russian author Leo Tolstoy, noted for its considerable length.

Proper noun

War and Peace

1. (often attributive) A text or utterance of remarkable length or complexity.
   • 1998, Bill Camarda, Upgrading & Fixing Networks for Dummies, IDG Books Worldwide:

     You get an exhaustive, War and Peace-style description of your system.

   • 2005, Lauren Mechling, Laura Moser, The Rise and Fall of a 10th Grade Social Climber, Random House Australia:

     She proceeded to launch into this War and Peace–length speech about honesty and community and respect and all those other topics that seriously get on my nerves.

   • 2012, J. M. Barry, L. C. Coats, Selling in Today's Economy: Applying Laws of Physics and Performance Art to Gain the Cutting Edge, iUniverse:

     I will refer to this as the War and Peace e-mail—a painfully long e-mail that many will not read. You remember Tolstoy's War and Peace, a very, very long and thick book. The consumer response to the initial e-mail was less than 1 percent.