Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • transitive verb To draw out or lengthen in time; prolong.
  • transitive verb Mathematics To draw to scale by means of a scale and protractor; plot.
  • transitive verb Anatomy To extend or protrude (a body part).

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A lengthening out; delay; putting off.
  • To draw out or lengthen in time; prolong: now chiefly in the past participle.
  • To lengthen out in space; extend in general.
  • To delay; defer; put off to a distant time.
  • In surveying, to draw to a scale; lay down, by means of a scale and protractor, the lines and angles of, as a piece of land; plot.
  • In anatomy, to draw forward (a part or an organ); extend (a part) anteriorly; have the action or effect of a protractor upon.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun obsolete Tedious continuance or delay.
  • transitive verb To draw out or lengthen in time or (rarely) in space; to continue; to prolong
  • transitive verb To put off to a distant time; to delay; to defer.
  • transitive verb (Surv.) To draw to a scale; to lay down the lines and angles of, with scale and protractor; to plot.
  • transitive verb (Zoöl.) To extend; to protrude; ; -- opposed to retract.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb To draw out; to extend, especially in duration.
  • verb To use a protractor.
  • verb rare To draw or delineate.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb lengthen in time; cause to be or last longer

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Latin prōtrahere, prōtract- : prō-, forth; see pro– + trahere, to drag.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From the past participle stem of Latin prōtrahō.

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