extenuation

Noun

extenuation (countable and uncountable, plural extenuations)

1. The action or process of making or becoming thin; an instance of this; a shrunken condition; leanness, emaciation.
   • This mightily helpeth the extenuation of members.1576, Jewell of Health, Baker, page 171 a
   • A yong man…had an extenuation for want of nourishment in his Limbs.1655, Culpepper, Riverius, i.v.19
2. (obsolete) Making less dense; rarefaction.
   • Winds proceed from extenuation of the Air, by the Sun.1655–60, Stanley, Hist. Philos. (1701), page 64/2
3. (obsolete) The action or process of making slender or diminishing in bulk; an instance of this.
   • All Dilatation is some degree of Extenuation.1619, John Donne, Serm., xiv, page 140
   • The Sea is the same at all seasons; what it gets by Rivers and showers, losing by exhalations and extenuations through the excessive heats…within the Torrid Zone.1665, Sir T. Herbert, Trav., published 1677, page 186
4. (obsolete) The action of making less or weak; and instance of this; a weakening, impoverishment. Also, mitigation (of blame or punishment).
   • The saide citie is much decaid…not a little to the extenuacion of that part of this realme.1542–3, Act 34–5 Hen. VIII, c. 18
   • Such extenuation let me begge, As in reproofe of many Tales deuis’d…I may…Finde pardon on my true submission.c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Fourth, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and...
5. The action of representing (something) as slight and trifling; underrating; an instance of this, a plea to this end; a modification in terms.
   • Sometimes…wee humble ourselves lower than there is cause…And no lesse well doth God take these submisse extenuations of our selves.1614, Bp. Hall, Recoll. Treat., page 209
   • Through their…extenuation [of their grievance], wretchedness and peevishness they undo themselves.1621, Anat. Mel., Burton, ii.i.iv.ii.228
6. (obsolete, rhetoric) A figure in which a term is used which, in contrast with the more fitting term it supplants, understates or seeks to diminish the significance of something.
   • We call him the Disabler or figure of Extenuation.1589, Puttenham, Eng. Poesie iii. xix. (Arb.), page 227
   • When for extenuation sake we use a lighter and more easie word or terme then the matter requires.1657, J. Smith, Myst. Rhet., page 56
7. The action of lessening, or seeking to lessen, the guilt of (an offence or fault) by alleging partial excuses; and instance or means of doing this; a plea in mitigation of censure.
   • Extenuation, by which the Crime, that seemed great, is made lesse.1651, Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan, ii., xxvii., page 156
   • He…was to find excuses and extenuations for sins.ante 1674, Clarendon, Surv. Leviath. (1676), page 180
8. (US, humorous, in plural) Thin garments.
   • They were clad in silken extenuations from the throat to the feet.1881 May, G.W. Cable, Scribner’s Mag., page 23
   • One side wore…extenuations of a…green colour.1883 September 12, Pall Mall G., page 2/2