Word.ws English Dictionary

protract

/pɹəˈtɹakt/US/pɹoʊˈtɹækt/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

protract verb: to draw out; to extend, especially in duration.

protract: black car on road during daytime
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Verb

protract (third-person singular simple present protracts, present participle protracting, simple past and past participle protracted)

  1. To draw out; to extend, especially in duration.
    • Doubtless he shrives this woman to her smock;
      Else ne'er could he so long protract his speech.1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Sixt”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
    • I have protracted my work till most of those whom I wished to please, have sunk into the grave […]1755, Samuel Johnson, A Dictionary of the English Language, London: J. and P. Knapton et al., Volume 1, Preface
    Synonyms:
    prolong
  2. To use a protractor.
  3. To draw to a scale; to lay down the lines and angles of, with scale and protractor; to plot.
    • This is a synopsis of our marches, which, protracted on Burckhardt’s map, gives an error of ten miles.1856, Richard Francis Burton, Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to El Medinah and Meccah, London: Longman, Brown, Green and Longmans, Volume 3, Chapter 25, page 147, footnote
  4. To put off to a distant time; to delay; to defer.
    • to protract a decision or duty
    • […] Let us bury him,
      And not protract with admiration what
      Is now due debt. To the grave!1611 April (first recorded performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Cymbeline”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard...
  5. To extend; to protrude.
    • A cat can protract and retract its claws.

protract meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Bengali and Malayalam

protract in Tamil

காலங் கடத்து, காலங்கடத்தி, நீட்டு

protract in Urdu

بڑھانا, لمبا کرنا, طوالت دینا

protract in Bengali

দীর্ঘায়িত করা, টেনে বড় করা

protract in Malayalam

നീളമാക്കുക, കാലതാസം വരുത്തുക, വരയ്ക്കുക
More languagesFewer languages
protract in Kannada
ಬಿಂಬಿಸು, ಎಳೆ, ದೀರ್ಘಮಾಡು, ಹೆಚ್ಚಿಸು
protract in Sanskrit
तनोति tanóti, हरति hárati

Examples of protract in a sentence

  • I should wish now to protract this moment ad infinitum; but I dare not.1847 October 16, Currer Bell [pseudonym; Charlotte Brontë], chapter IV, in Jane Eyre. […], volume II, London: Smith, Elder, and Co., […]...
  • A bereft landscape of sad browns and sepias of winter lay all about us, the marshland drearily protracting itself towards the wide river.1979, Angela Carter, “The Tiger’s Bride”, in Burning Your Boats: The Collected Short Stories, New York: Henry Holt, published 1996, page...
  • Still, from these extraordinary pages you can learn that it's very bad to be burned alive on a windy day, because the breeze will keep flicking the flames away from you and thus protract the process.2010 Mar, Christopher Hitchens, “The Men Who Made England”, in The Atlantic:
  • Both hoped to protract the discovery of what had happened—the mother, by interposing her bustling person betwixt Mr.1819, Jedediah Cleishbotham [pseudonym; Walter Scott], chapter XIII, in Tales of My Landlord, Third Series. […], volume I (The Bride of...

All 25 example sentences with protract

Synonyms of protract

Forms of protract

third-person singular presentprotracts
present participleprotracting
past participleprotracted
pastprotracted

Origin of protract

From the past participle stem of Latin prōtrahō. By surface analysis, pro- + tract.

Words formed from protract

Questions about protract

What does protract mean?
Protract means to draw out; to extend, especially in duration.
What is protract in Tamil?
Protract in Tamil is காலங் கடத்து, காலங்கடத்தி, நீட்டு. See Protract meaning in Tamil.
How do you use protract in a sentence?
I should wish now to protract this moment ad infinitum; but I dare not.
What part of speech is protract?
Protract is a verb.
How do you pronounce protract?
Protract is pronounced /pɹəˈtɹakt/ (UK).
What is the past tense of protract?
The past tense of protract is protracted.

Words near protract in the dictionary

  1. protozoonosis
  2. protozoonotic
  3. protozooplankton
  4. protozooses
  5. protozoosis
  6. protract
  7. protractable
  8. protracted
  9. protractedly
  10. protractedness
  11. protracter

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: protract (page history and authors); protract (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); protract (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); protract (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); protract (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); protract (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); तनोति (Sanskrit) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “protract.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/protract. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.