continuances

Noun

continuance (countable and uncountable, plural continuances)

1. (uncountable) The action of continuing.
   • Now stands the Brere like a lord alone, / Puffed up with pryde and vaine pleasaunce. / But all this glee had no continuaunce: / For eftsones winter gan to approche; / The blustering Boreas did encroche, / And beate upon the solitarie Brere; / For nowe no succoure was seene him nere.1579, Immeritô [pseudonym; Edmund Spenser], The Shepheardes Calender: Conteyning Tvvelue Æglogues Proportionable to the Twelue Monethes. …, London: Printed by Hugh Singleton, OCLC; republished in...

   Synonyms:

   perdurance

2. The period during which something continues or goes on; duration.
   • The gentlemen of the mission were present at a splendid festival, called "The Yam Custom." […] During the continuance of it, (as in the ancient Saturnalia) neither theft, intrigue, nor assault, are punishable, but licentiousness of every kind prevails.1873, T. E. Bowdich, “Mission from Cape Coast Castle to Ashantee”, in Travels in Africa, page 281
3. (US, countable) An order issued by a court granting a postponement of a legal proceeding for a set period.
   • At the submission to sufficient facts in Lowell District Court, an agreement was reached between the prosecution and the defense. Despite the continuance without a finding, the defendant was required to pay court costs of $150. The continuance means that if the defendant is not arrested on the same...1976 August 14, “Chelmsford Police Net Another”, in Gay Community News, volume 4, number 7, page 1