Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- transitive & intransitive verb To make or become longer.
from The Century Dictionary.
- To make long or longer; extend or elongate in space or in duration; protract or prolong: as, to
lengthen a line; to lengthen life; to lengthen a vowel or syllable in pronunciation. - To grow long or longer; extend in length.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- intransitive verb To become longer.
- transitive verb To extent in length; to make longer in extent or duration
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- verb transitive To make
longer , toextend thelength of. - verb intransitive To become longer.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- verb become long or longer
- verb make longer
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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The word Lent, however, comes from the Anglo-Saxon word lengthen, which means: Spring.
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That said, as interest rates come down and loan terms lengthen, microfinance loans become economically attractive to a wider range of businesses, and support longer term investments.
Elisabeth Rhyne: Why are microfinance interest rates so high? 2010
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Rocky Delgadillo warned the council that the ballot title could provoke a legal challenge and recommended that it use "lengthen" in the title while also saying that "change" was legally sufficient.
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As to the peculiar effect of C final in certain particles to "lengthen" the vowel before it, this C is doubtless the remnant of the intensive enclitic CE, and the so-called 'length' is not in the vowel, but in the more forcible utterance of the C.
The Roman Pronunciation of Latin Why we use it and how to use it Frances Ellen Lord
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_Producere_ is the correct technical term for 'lengthen'; compare
The Last Poems of Ovid 43 BC-18? Ovid
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A great feature under normal conditions, since it will lengthen the life of your boots, but the rubber caps tended to warp and pinch our toes if we dried ours too close to the fire.
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The being able to shorten and lengthen the nylon cord allows for more leverage on the dog when heeling.
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The being able to shorten and lengthen the nylon cord allows for more leverage on the dog when heeling.
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The dress can be shortened to make a blouse or top, and though the sleeves are traditionally short, you could always lengthen the rectangles they're made from.
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There was not enough on the bolt for me, so I added the trim from the lace curtain, to lengthen the sleeves.
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