extenuation
Pronunciation Noun
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Pronunciation Noun
extenuation
- (countable and uncountable) The action of extenuate; extenuated condition.
- The action or process of making or becoming thin; an instance of this; a shrunken condition; leanness, emaciation.
- 1576, Baker, Jewell of Health, page 171 a:
- This mightily helpeth the extenuation of members.
- 1655, Culpepper, Riverius, i.v.19:
- A yong man…had an extenuation for want of nourishment in his Limbs.
- 1707, Floyer, Physic. Pulse-Watch, page 183:
- Galen commends tepid Baths for…curing all Extenuations.
- 1781 October 27th, Johnson, Let. Mrs. Thrale:
- The extenuation is her only bad symptom.
- 1825, Walter Scott, Betrothed, xxx:
- The female…exhibited…some symptoms of extenuation.
- 1828, Biog. in Ann. Reg., page 474/2:
- Some pallid from extenuation.
- 1576, Baker, Jewell of Health, page 171 a:
- (of air, obsolete) Making less dense; rarefaction.
- 1655–60, Stanley, Hist. Philos. (1701), page 64/2:
- Winds proceed from extenuation of the Air, by the Sun.
- 1655–60, Stanley, Hist. Philos. (1701), page 64/2:
- (obsolete) The action or process of making slender or diminish in bulk; an instance of this.
- 1619, John Donne, Serm. xiv, page 140:
- All Dilatation is some degree of Extenuation.
- 1665, Sir T. Herbert, Trav. (1677), page 186:
- The Sea is the same at all seasons; what it gets by Rivers and showers, losing by exhalations and extenuations through the excessive heats…within the Torrid Zone.
- 1777, Joseph Priestley, Disquisitions relating to Matter and Spirit (1782), volume I, chapter xix, page 229:
- Gregory the Great…says that God penetrates everything without extenuation.
- 1619, John Donne, Serm. xiv, page 140:
- (obsolete) The action of making less or weak; and instance of this; a weaken, impoverishment. Also, mitigation (of blame or punishment).
- 1542–3, Act 34–5 Hen. VIII, c. 18:
- The saide citie is much decaid…not a little to the extenuacion of that part of this realme.
- 1596, Shakespeare, Henry IV, Part 1, act III, scene ii, 22:
- Such extenuation let me begge, As in reproofe of many Tales deuis’d…I may…Finde pardon on my true submission.
- 1654, H. L’Estrange, Chas. I (1655), page 1:
- The gallantry of Henry’s heroique spirit tended somewhat to the…extenuation of Charles his glory.
- 1707, Atterbury, Serm. v. (1723), volume II, page 159:
- What Deeds of Charity we have to alledge in Extenuation of our Punishment.
- 1542–3, Act 34–5 Hen. VIII, c. 18:
- The action of represent (something) as slight and trifling; underrate; an instance of this, a plea to this end; a modification in term.
- 1614, Bp. Hall, Recoll. Treat., page 209:
- Sometimes…wee humble ourselves lower than there is cause…And no lesse well doth God take these submisse extenuations of our selves.
- 1621, Burton, Anat. Mel., ii.i.iv.ii.228:
- Through their…extenuation [of their grievance], wretchedness and peevishness they undo themselves.
- 1722, Daniel Defoe, Journal of the Plague Year, (1840, page 6)
- Many died of it every day, so that now all our extenuations abated.
- 1859, John Stuart Mill, On Liberty ii. (1865), page 13/2:
- The utmost they allow is an extenuation of its absolute necessity.
- 1873, A.V.S. Sligo (translator), R.F. Calixte (author), The Life of the Venerable Anna Maria Taigi, page 303 ↗:
- The simple matter-of-fact style of the narrative is, from its unobtrusive character, more adapted for spiritual reading than the views and generalisations, and prologetic extenuations of more recent biographers.
- (rhetoric, obsolete) A figure in which a term is used which, in contrast with the more fitting term it supplant, understate or seeks to diminish the significance of something.
- 1589, Puttenham, Eng. Poesie iii. xix. (Arb.), page 227:
- We call him the Disabler or figure of Extenuation.
- 1657, J. Smith, Myst. Rhet., page 56:
- When for extenuation sake we use a lighter and more easie word or terme then the matter requires.
- 1706, in Phillips
- 1823, in Crabb, Technol. Dict.
- 1589, Puttenham, Eng. Poesie iii. xix. (Arb.), page 227:
- 1614, Bp. Hall, Recoll. Treat., page 209:
- The action of lessen, or seeking to lessen, the guilt of (an offence or fault) by allege partial excuse; and instance or means of doing this; a plea in mitigation of censure.
- 1651, Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan, ii., xxvii., page 156:
- Extenuation, by which the Crime, that seemed great, is made lesse.
- ante 1674, Clarendon, Surv. Leviath. (1676), page 180:
- He…was to find excuses and extenuations for sins.
- 1712, Addison, Spect., № 297, ¶ 1:
- Whatever may be said for the Extenuation of such Defects.
- 1750, Johnson, Rambler, № 39, ¶ 7:
- It may be urged, in extenuation of this crime…that [etc.].
- ante 1832, Jeremy Bentham, Wks. (1843), volume I, page 174:
- The differences of castes…furnish a copious stock of extenuations…to different classes of offences.
- 1839, Mackintosh, Eth. Philos., Wks. 1846, volume I, page 28:
- In extenuation of a noble error.
- 1651, Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan, ii., xxvii., page 156:
- (US, humorous, in the plural as “extenuations”) Thin garment.
- 1881 May, G.W. Cable in Scribner’s Mag., page 23:
- They were clad in silken extenuations from the throat to the feet.
- 1883 September 12th, Pall Mall G., page 2/2:
- One side wore…extenuations of a…green colour.
- 1881 May, G.W. Cable in Scribner’s Mag., page 23:
- The action or process of making or becoming thin; an instance of this; a shrunken condition; leanness, emaciation.
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