protrude (protrudes, present participle protruding; past and past participle protruded)

1. (intransitive) To extend from, above or beyond a surface or boundary; to bulge outward; to stick out.
   • 1839, Charles Dickens, Oliver Twist, Chapter 5,

     The old woman’s face was wrinkled; her two remaining teeth protruded over her under lip; and her eyes were bright and piercing.

   • 1939, John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath (novel), New York: Viking, Chapter 20, p. 272,

     […] from his hip pocket protruded a notebook with metal covers.

   • 1992, Rudolf M[athias] Schuster, The Hepaticae and Anthocerotae of North America: East of the Hundredth Meridian, volume V, New York, N.Y.: Columbia University Press, →ISBN, page 5:

     Archegonia are surrounded early in their development by the juvenile perianth, through the slender beak of which the elongated neck of the fertilized archegonium protrudes.

2. (transitive) To cause to extend from a surface or boundary; to cause to stick out.
   • 1695, Richard Blackmore, Prince Arthur, London: Awnsham and John Churchil, Book 9, p. 267,

     Where high Epidii midst th’ Hibernia Waves,

     Protrudes his Head, and all their Monsters braves.

   • 1781, Thomas Pennant, A Tour in Wales, London, Volume 2, p. 303,

     Before me soared the great promontory of PENMAEN MAWR, protruding itself into the sea […]

   1. (transitive) To thrust out, as through a narrow orifice or from confinement; to cause to come forth.
      • 1735, James Thomson (poet, born 1700), “Autumn” in The Four Seasons, and Other Poems, London: J. Millan and J. Millar, p. 69,

        He, when young Spring protrudes the bursting gems,

        Marks the first bud, and sucks the healthful gale

        Into his freshen’d soul;

      • 1872, George Eliot, Middlemarch, Book 4, Chapter 37,

        Mr. Hawley’s disgust at the notion of the “Pioneer” being edited by an emissary, and of Brooke becoming actively political—as if a tortoise of desultory pursuits should protrude its small head ambitiously and become rampant—was hardly equal to the annoyance felt by some members of Mr. Brooke’s own family.

      • 1901, H. G. Wells, The First Men in the Moon, London: George Newnes, Chapter 2, p. 31,

        Then […] I perceived something stir. I made a run for this, but before I reached it a brown object separated itself, rose on two muddy legs and protruded two drooping, bleeding hands.

      • 1949, George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four, London: Secker & Warburg, Part 2, Chapter 10,

        The man protruded the tip of a white tongue, licked the place where his lips should have been, and then passed on.

3. (transitive, obsolete) To thrust forward; to drive or force along.
   • 1566, William Painter (author), The Palace of Pleasure, London: Richard Tottell and William Jones, Volume 1, The .xlj. Nouell,

     […] ye people standyng round about […] cried out, incontinently for the deliuerie of the Ladie, & for vengeaunce to be taken of hym, whiche so wickedly had protruded her into that daunger:

   • 1646, Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica, London: E. Dod, Chapter 5, “Of the right and left Hand,” pp. 190-191,

     […] Palsies do oftnest happen upon the left side if understood in this sense; the most vigorous part protecting it selfe, and protruding the matter upon the weaker and lesse resistive side:

   • 1655, Hamon L'Estrange, The Reign of Charles I of England, London: Edward Dod and Henry Seile, p. 169,

     For in case of general disturbance, nothing is more familiar then for several Factions, of several, and sometimes of contrary inclinations and interests, to protrude and drive on one and the same design, to several intents and purposes.

   • 1690, John Locke, An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, London: Thomas Basset, Book 2, Chapter 4, p. 50,

     Of pure Space then, and Solidity, there are several (amongst which, I confess my self one) who persuade themselves, they have clear and distinct Ideas; and that they can think on Space, without any thing in it, that resists, or is protruded by Body;

• (extend from a surface or boundary) jut, project, protuberate

• French: dépasser, protruder
• German: herausragen, hervorragen, herausstehen, vorstehen, vorkragen, hervorstehen, hervorkragen
• Italian: protendersi, sportare, sporgere, protrudere
• Portuguese: protrair
• Russian: высо́вываться
• Spanish: sobresalir, protruir