Protract
[prə'trækt] or [pro'trækt]
Definition
(v. t.) To draw out or lengthen in time or (rarely) in space; to continue; to prolong; as, to protract an argument; to protract a war.
(v. t.) To put off to a distant time; to delay; to defer; as, to protract a decision or duty.
(v. t.) To draw to a scale; to lay down the lines and angles of, with scale and protractor; to plot.
(v. t.) To extend; to protrude; as, the cat can protract its claws; -- opposed to retract.
(n.) Tedious continuance or delay.
Checker: McDonald
Synonyms and Synonymous
v. a. Prolong, continue, draw out, lengthen, spin out.
Checker: Thelma
Synonyms and Antonyms
SYN:Prolong, produce, elongate, defer, extend, lengthen, continue, draw_out
ANT:Shorten, abbreviate, curtail, contract, reduce
Checked by Gilbert
Definition
v.t. to draw out or lengthen in time: to prolong: to put off in time: to draw to a scale.—p.adj. Protrac′ted drawn out in time: tedious: prolonged: postponed.—adv. Protrac′tedly.—n. Protrac′ter.—adj. Protrac′tile susceptible of being thrust out.—n. Protrac′tion act of protracting or prolonging: the delaying of the termination of a thing: the plotting or laying down of the dimensions of anything on paper.—adj. Protrac′tive drawing out in time: prolonging: delaying.—n. Protrac′tor one who or that which protracts: a mathematical instrument for laying down angles on paper used in surveying &c.
Checked by Flossie
Examples
- I should wish now to protract this moment _ad infinitum_; but I dare not. Charlotte Bronte. Jane Eyre.
- That would protract the mental uneasiness of Mr Venus too long, he said. Charles Dickens. Our Mutual Friend.
- And the man seemed resolved to protract it. Charlotte Bronte. Jane Eyre.
- His skin, nearly black, his matted hair and bristly beard, were signs of a long protracted misery. Mary Shelley. The Last Man.
- She grew paler and paler as the process of tea-making was protracted. Charlotte Bronte. Shirley.
- It's only the first labor, which is almost always protracted. Ernest Hemingway. A Farewell To Arms.
- But I also know,' pursued the old gentleman, 'the misery, the slow torture, the protracted anguish of that ill-assorted union. Charles Dickens. Oliver Twist.
- THESE events occupied so much time, that June had numbered more than half its days, before we again commenced our long-protracted journey. Mary Shelley. The Last Man.
- But I feel mine is not the existence to be long protracted under an Indian sun. Charlotte Bronte. Jane Eyre.
- De Long, who had an earnest and protracted conversation with Edison over the Arctic expedition he was undertaking with the aid of Mr. James Gordon Bennett, of the New York Herald. Frank Lewis Dyer. Edison, His Life and Inventions.
- I know there has been no impolicy in protracting his absence thus far. Charlotte Bronte. Shirley.
Typist: Vivienne