prolongation
(prəʊlɒŋˈgeɪʃən)
[a. F. prolongation (14th c. in Littré), ad. late L. type *prōlongātiōn-em, n. of action f. prōlong-āre to prolong.]
The action of prolonging.
1. Lengthening or extension in time; extension of the duration of anything.
| 1549 Compl. Scot. v. 32 Oure cupidite constrenzeis vs to desire prolongatione of oure dais. 1633 Earl of Manchester Al Mondo (1636) 175 Prolongation [of life] is no pleasure, but so long as it goes well with us. 1748 Anson's Voy. ii. xi. 256 This prolongation of our cruise was a very prudent measure. 1844 H. H. Wilson Brit. India II. 367 The escape of Apa Saheb occasioned the prolongation of military operations. 1862 Sir B. Brodie Psychol. Inq. II. iv. 109 The advancement of knowledge..tends to the prolongation of the average duration of human life. |
† 2. Extension of time that defers action; delay, putting off, postponement. Obs.
| 1490 Caxton Eneydos xxiii. 85 Attones wythoute prolongacion ne taryeng. 1552 T. Gresham in Strype Eccl. Mem. (1721) II. ii. App. C. 146, I offered them a bargain..for the prolongation of {pstlg}25000 and to have taken {pstlg}5000 in fustians. 1622 Malynes Anc. Law-Merch. 470 That they shall not require (without iust cause) any time of prolongation. |
3. The lengthening or prolonging of a syllable, note, or other sound.
| 1589 Puttenham Eng. Poesie ii. xiii. (Arb.) 127 The licence of the Greeks and Latines, who made not their sharpe accent any necessary prolongation of their times, but vsed such sillable sometimes long sometimes short at their pleasure. 1866–79 Sibson Wks. (1881) IV. 259 Prolongation of the first sound is the absence of silence and the presence of the wavering,..feeble sound during the interval between the first and second sounds. 1900 H. W. Smyth Grk. Melic Poets 389 A feature of great importance, [which] points..to an extensive use of the principle of prolongation (τονή). |
4. Linear extension in space; increase of length; with a and pl. an instance of this; an addition by which the length of anything is increased.
| 1671 Grew Anat. Plants i. iii. §4 The Lignous Body..being nothing else but the prolongation of the Seminal Root. 1799 Kirwan Geol. Ess. 439 The old town of Damietta, anciently situated near the sea, is now by the prolongation of the land, 2 leagues from it. 1802 Paley Nat. Theol. viii. (ed. 2) 123 Two remarkable processes or prolongations of the bones of the leg. 1858 Mayne Expos. Lex. s.v., The medullary prolongation of the nerves. |
b. pl. humorous. Trousers; ‘continuations’.
| 1849 E. E. Napier Excurs. S. Africa II. 230 Blue, dungaree trowsers were substituted for white prolongations. |
5. Extension of scope or range; continuation.
| 1848 R. I. Wilberforce Doctr. Incarnation v. (1852) 126 The ascending line of Christian truth was only the prolongation of that first principle of the Gospel, that Christ was perfect God and perfect man. 1907 Athenæum 19 Jan. 70/3 After the prolongation of similar stuff to the point of satiety, the book abruptly ends. |