EXTENUATE • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Extenuate

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/ɪkstˈɛnjuˌeɪt/ Listen

verb

Extenuate v. t. (past & past part. extenuated; pres. part. extenuating)

To make thin or slender; to draw out so as to lessen the thickness. "His body behind the head becomes broad, from whence it is again extenuated all the way to the tail."

To lessen; to palliate; to lessen or weaken the force of; to diminish the conception of, as crime, guilt, faults, ills, accusations, etc.; opposed to aggravate. "But fortune there extenuates the crime." "Let us extenuate, conceal, adorn the unpleasing reality."

To lower or degrade; to detract from. (Obs.) "Who can extenuate thee?"

Synonyms: To palliate; to mitigate. See Palliate.

Extenuate v. i. To become thinner; to make excuses; to advance palliating considerations.

adjective

Extenuate adj. Thin; slender. (Obs.)

See images of 'Extenuate'

Etymology of 'Extenuate'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Extenuate" Quotes from Famous Books

... had flung the ear-rings at his face. She had missed her mark. But this did not extenuate the outrageous gesture. He pointed to ...

— Zuleika Dobson - or, An Oxford Love Story • Max Beerbohm

... suffered much, and that their wives and children had been murdered before their eyes, but to wreak vengeance on Spencer's unoffending family, who had walked into their settlement under the protection of a friendly alliance, was an unparalleled outrage which nothing can justify or extenuate. With as little delay as possible after the horrible discovery, I returned to camp, had boxes made, and next day buried the bodies of these hapless victims ...

— The Memoirs of General Philip H. Sheridan, Vol. I., Part 1 • Philip H. Sheridan

... it will be found on the closest inspection to deserve. Though it may be conceded to him, that criminal individuals are not more numerous in the Society Islands, than among other people, yet it is obvious, that the discovery of the universal prevelancy of vice does not warrant any person to extenuate its malignity in any particular instances ...

— A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Volume 14 • Robert Kerr

... of it were Lord Grenville, who introduced it; Lord Loughborough; Holland; and Dr. Horsley, bishop of Rochester. The latter was peculiarly eloquent. He began his speech by arraigning the injustice and impolicy of the trade: injustice, he said, which no considerations of policy could extenuate; impolicy, equal in degree ...

— The History of the Rise, Progress and Accomplishment of the Abolition of the African Slave Trade by the British Parliament (1808) • Thomas Clarkson

... by extraordinary efforts on the part of the acting-manager, Ambivius Turpio. The prologue written by Terence for this third performance is one of the most curious literary documents of the time. He is too angry to extenuate the repeated failure of his play. If we believe him, it fell dead the first time because "that fool, the public," were all excitement over an exhibition on the tight-rope which was to follow the play; at the second representation only one act had been gone through, ...

— Latin Literature • J. W. Mackail

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