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protracted

used in a sentence
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Definition relatively long in duration

More rarely, to protract can mean to prolong something — especially in a tedious (tiresome) manner.
  • protracted negotiations
  • bring an end to the protracted war between the countries
  • suffered protracted hiccups for almost a year
  • Let's not needlessly protract this conflict.
  • The first labor is usually protracted.
    Ernest Hemingway  --  A Farewell to Arms
  • protracted = long-lasting
  • This was Mr. Cruncher's conclusion after a protracted but vain endeavour to find a better one.
    Charles Dickens  --  A Tale of Two Cities
  • I did not tell the doctor of my decision-that my death should not be a slow and protracted one as it would be in the course of nature.
    Agatha Christie  --  And Then There Were None
  • 'But I also know,' pursued the old gentleman, 'the misery, the slow torture, the protracted anguish of that ill-assorted union.
    Charles Dickens  --  Oliver Twist
  • One protracted moment along the trail of nows.
    Nicholas Evans  --  The Horse Whisperer
  • She recalled his long sad and severe look at those words and understood the meaning of the rebuke and despair in that protracted gaze.
    Leo Tolstoy  --  War and Peace
  • Recovery from infections of this sort can be as rapid as the cure for tuberculosis is protracted.
    Thomas Mann  --  The Magic Mountain
  • They shuddered below its horror; its protracted menace, its unsearchable enigma, deprived them of dignity and courage.
    Thomas Wolfe  --  Look Homeward, Angel
  • I could see how heavily this protracted imprisonment was weighing on him.
    Jules Verne  --  Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea
  • Why this protracted war, when my commands Pronounc'd a peace, and gave the Latian lands?
    Virgil  --  The Aeneid
  • Archer paused again, and their eyes met in another protracted scrutiny.
    Edith Wharton  --  The Age of Innocence
  • He took a drag and launched immediately into a protracted coughing fit that had Gholam smirking and pounding him on the back.
    Khaled Hosseini  --  And The Mountains Echoed
  • , that the intermissions should not be protracted beyond a period of three years.
    Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, & John Jay  --  The Federalist Papers
  • "Yes, I am satisfied, marquis, I am satisfied," said Newman, with his protracted enunciation.
    Henry James  --  The American
  • Thabang's father, an electrician, died after a protracted battle against AIDS that consumed the family savings.
    Nicholas D. Kristof  --  Half the Sky
  • We met at a late hour of the night; for our debaucheries were to be faithfully protracted until morning.
    Edgar Allan Poe  --  William Wilson

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