Search the Dictionary

In Sanskrit grammar, a lengthening of the simple vowels a, i, e, by prefixing an a element. The term is sometimes used to denote the same vowel change in other languages.

Something added to, or united with, another, to lengthen it out or repair it, -- as, an addition to a beehive; a feather inserted in a broken wing of a bird; a length of twisted hair in a fishing line. [Obs. or Prov. Eng.]

make greater in bulk, quantity, extent, value, or amount, etc.; to add to; to extend; to lengthen; to enhance; to aggravate; as, to increase one's possessions, influence. I will increase the famine. Ezek. v. 16. Make denials Increase your services. Shak.

To lengthen. [Obs.] Shak.

Of, pertaining to, or constituting, a paragoge; added to the end of, or serving to lengthen, a word. Paragogic letters, in the Semitic languages, letters which are added to the ordinary forms of words, to express additional emphasis, or some change in the sense.

To draw out; to extend; to lengthen; to prolong; as, to produce a man's life to threescore. Sir T. Browne.

To lengthen out; to extend. [Obs.] He that doth much . . . products his mortality. Hackett.

The act of lengthening out or prolonging.

To lengthen in time; to extend the duration of; to draw out; to continue; as, to prolong one's days. Prolong awhile the traitor's life. Shak. The unhappy queen with talk prolonged the night. Dryden.

The act of lengthening in space or in time; extension; protraction. Bacon.

To draw out or lengthen in time or (rarely) in space; to continue; to prolong; as, to protract an argument; to protract a war.

Drawing out or lengthening in time; prolonging; continuing; delaying. He suffered their protractive arts. Dryden.

To have a whirling sensation; to be giddy. In these lengthened vigils his brain often reeled. Hawthorne.

ot needing a remove to any other house of scholarship. Milton. And drags at each remove a lengthening chain. Goldsmith.

A set of lengthened or otherwise modified feathers round, or on, the neck of a bird.

A brass wind instrument, like a bass trumpet, so contrived that it can be lengthened or shortened according to the tone required; -- said to be the same as the trombone. [Written also sagbut.] Moore (Encyc. of Music).

timber that are halved, notched, or cut away so that they will fit each other and form a lengthened beam of the same size at the junction as elsewhere.

; to scamper. So four fierce coursers, starting to the race, Scour through the plain, and lengthen every pace. Dryden.

Not itself sounded, but serving to lengthen the preceeding vowel, as e in tune.

arrow, besides being generally diphthongic as well. Hence, originally short vowels can be lengthened and yet kept quite distinct from the original longs. H. Sweet. In short, in few words; in brief; briefly. -- The long and the short, the whole; a brief summing up. -- The shorts (Stock Exchange), those who are unsuppl…