extenuations

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
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
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
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
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

See all 8 meanings of extenuation