as in lengthening
to make longer
the highway project was protracted by years of litigation
Synonyms & Similar Words
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
Recent Examples of Synonyms for protracting
Verb
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Their front crisp seams also have a leg-lengthening effect — a big plus for a petite wearer like me.—
Sian Babish,
PEOPLE,
7 May 2026 -
This lengthening effect happens all the time for all sorts of waves, not just light.—
Big Think,
Big Think,
1 May 2026
Verb
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Small adjustments made big differences, like increasing pocket sizes to better fit the tennis balls and, with Sabet’s suggestion, extending her coat to the floor.—
Kaio Cesar,
Los Angeles Times,
11 May 2026
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Mominul followed his 91 with 56 in the second innings, extending his rich form with five half-centuries in a row and became the Bangladesh batter to reach 5,000 runs.—
ABC News,
ABC News,
11 May 2026
Verb
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Iran has continued to block ships from passing through the strait, disrupting critical Gulf oil supplies and prolonging the global economic uncertainty surrounding the conflict.—
Peter Nicholas,
NBC news,
10 May 2026
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Okert walked Ward on five pitches, prolonging the pitching staff’s season-defining propensity.—
Chandler Rome,
New York Times,
1 May 2026
Verb
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The Cascadia Subduction Zone is a 700-mile fault stretching from Northern California to British Columbia and separates the Juan de Fuca and North America tectonic plates, according to the Pacific Northwest Seismic Network (PNSN).—
Julia Jacobo,
ABC News,
14 May 2026
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Rai said the additional five years, stretching the patent from 2026 to 2031, likely stem from the Hatch-Waxman Act, a 1984 law that allows drugmakers to extend patents by up to five years to make up for time lost moving their drug through clinical trials and the FDA approval process.—
Berkeley Lovelace Jr,
NBC news,
13 May 2026
Verb
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James Ward During the debate, Republican candidate Steve Hilton said that only a small percentage of California has been developed for housing, arguing that the state should focus on building homes on undeveloped land rather than increasing density in existing cities.—
James Ward,
USA Today,
15 May 2026
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Doing so compresses the light reflected from the plasma, thereby increasing its intensity.—
Ameya Paleja,
Interesting Engineering,
14 May 2026
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Cite this Entry
“Protracting.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/protracting. Accessed 17 May. 2026.
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