Protracts

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To stretch or lengthen an object both physically and temporally while describing or depicting a shape with accuracy and unnecessarily prolonging a situation or event
2. To cause something to last longer than usual ; to pull or drag something forward or outward in space
3. To make an event or process continue beyond the expected duration ; to stretch something out in a physical direction

Etymology: "Protracts" is the third-person singular form of "protract," so its history is that of the verb itself. The verb comes from Latin "prōtrahere," meaning "to draw forth" or "to draw out," formed from "pro-" ("forward") and "trahere" ("to draw"). The "tract" element, which appears in words such as "tractor" and "traction," carries the same sense of drawing or pulling. The original idea is literal: something is pulled out further in space. The meaning later stretched into time, so that a meeting, a war or a silence could be "protracted" by being made longer than necessary. The sense of extending a drawing or diagram accurately, with its shape carefully laid out, follows the same logic of drawing something forward into a fuller form.

Synonyms: extends, lengthens, prolongs, dilates, stretches

Antonyms: shortens, contracts, reduces, abbreviates, curtails