Protract

Pronunciation

• UK IPA: /pɹəˈtɹakt/

Origin

From the past participle stem of Latin prōtrahō.

Full definition of protract

Verb

1. To draw out; to extend, especially in duration.
• 2010, Christopher Hitchens, ‘The Men Who Made England’, The Atlantic, Mar 2010:Still, form these extraordinary pages you can learn that it's very bad to be burned alive on a windy day, because the breeze will keep flicking the flames away from you and thus protract the process.
2. To use a protractor.
3. (surveying) To draw to a scale; to lay down the lines and angles of, with scale and protractor; to plot.
4. To put off to a distant time; to delay; to defer.to protract a decision or duty
5. To extend; to protrude.A cat can protract and retract its claws.

Synonyms

• (to draw out) prolong

Derived terms

• protractile