extenuate
English
Etymology
From (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Latin extenuātus, past participle of extenuāre (“to make thin, loosen, weaken”) from ex (“out”) + tenuāre (“to make thin”), from tenuis (“thin”).
Pronunciation
Verb
extenuate (third-person singular simple present extenuat, present participle ing, simple past and past participle extenuated)
- (transitive) To lessen; to palliate; to lessen or weaken the force of; to diminish the conception of, as crime, guilt, faults, ills, accusations, etc.
- 1599, William Shakespeare, Much Ado About Nothing, Act 4 Scene 1
- CLAUDIO. I know what you would say: if I have known her,
- You'll say she did embrace me as a husband,
- And so extenuate the 'forehand sin: No, Leonato,
- I never tempted her with word too large;
- But, as a brother to his sister, show'd
- Bashful sincerity and comely love.
- 1833, Isaac Taylor, Saturday Evening
- Let us then contemplate this companion of our existence;—and let us extenuate, conceal, adorn the unpleasing reality.
- 1599, William Shakespeare, Much Ado About Nothing, Act 4 Scene 1
- (archaic, transitive) To make thin or slender; to draw out so as to lessen the thickness.
- 1681, Nehemiah Grew, Musaeum Regalis Societatis
- His body behind the head becomes broad, from whence it is again extenuated all the way to the tail.
- 1849, Charlotte Brontë, Shirley
- To this extenuated spectre, perhaps, a crumb is not thrown once a year, but when ahungered and athirst to famine—when all humanity has forgotten the dying tenant of a decaying house—Divine Mercy remembers the mourner […]
- 1681, Nehemiah Grew, Musaeum Regalis Societatis
- (archaic, intransitive) To become thinner.
- (obsolete) To lower or degrade; to detract from.
- 1667, John Milton, “Book X”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC:
- Who can extenuate thee?
Synonyms
- (lessen; diminish): mitigate
Antonyms
- (lessen; diminish): aggravate
Related terms
Translations
make thin or slender
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lessen; palliate
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Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “extenuate”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)
Latin
Pronunciation
- (Classical Latin) IPA(key): /ek.ste.nuˈaː.te/, [ɛks̠t̪ɛnuˈäːt̪ɛ]
- (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA(key): /ek.ste.nuˈa.te/, [ekst̪enuˈäːt̪e]
Verb
(deprecated template usage) extenuāte
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