Find the word definition

Crossword clues for lengthen

Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
lengthen
verb
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
the shadows lengthen (=get longer, as it gets later in the day)
▪ Already the shadows were lengthening.
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ NOUN
shadow
▪ Towards the end of the fourth day, as shadows lengthen across sunlit fairways, we witness a test of character as well.
▪ The afternoon was well advanced: the light like gauze on the bricks and leaves, the shadows lengthening.
▪ The shadows had lengthened, he thought, so that probably he had been right and it was towards evening.
▪ And as the shadows lengthened and the light drained from the sky, the crystal began to glow.
▪ Warm shadows have lengthened across the road and the tourists have gone.
▪ The shadows were rapidly lengthening, and in the air there was the crisp, metallic scent of winter.
▪ Beyond the window their shadows lengthen, aspiring to the stature of a late quartet.
▪ The evening shadows had lengthened still more.
stride
▪ Furious with myself for these creeping insidious thoughts I focussed on lengthening my stride and levitating the rucksack.
▪ Without exchanging a word we lengthened our strides, splashing through puddles, and made for the door.
▪ He had walked away from Sophie and now she lengthened her stride to catch him up.
▪ Quinn walked home the way he had come, lengthening his strides with each new block.
▪ The animal responded at once, quickly lengthening its stride into a gallop.
time
▪ New developments in filtration have been mainly in the direction of improving performance and lengthening the times between backwashing.
▪ Con: Outlines can lengthen your writing time because they take so long to create.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ As afternoon drew on and the shadows lengthened, her fears increased.
▪ Can you lengthen these pants for me?
▪ He smiled and the creases at the corners of his eyes lengthened.
▪ He wore blue jeans, which had been lengthened with strips of denim.
▪ Shadows began to lengthen as the sun sank in the sky.
▪ The crack seemed to open wider and lengthen before her eyes.
▪ This particular operation involves lengthening the Achilles tendon.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ Again, you can lengthen or shorten the story by including or excluding the various parts, which are mostly self-contained.
▪ Because the muscles are being lengthened, you may experience pain in them.
▪ But as the separation from her husband lengthened, she found herself becoming increasingly despondent.
▪ Plans to lengthen military service from 15 to 18 months will also be scrapped if the talks succeed.
▪ The more lives lengthen, it seems certain, the more change happens.
▪ The only solution for this is to use a soldering iron to lengthen them!
▪ There was plenty of room on the course and it was relatively easy to lengthen it enough to test the professionals.
▪ We find out that days are lengthening, why April has fools and how to slow time to a stop.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Lengthen

Lengthen \Length"en\ (-'n), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Lengthened (-'nd); p. pr. & vb. n. Lengthening (-'n*[i^]ng).] To extent in length; to make longer in extent or duration; as, to lengthen a line or a road; to lengthen life; -- sometimes followed by out.

What if I please to lengthen out his date.
--Dryden.

Lengthen

Lengthen \Length"en\, v. i. To become longer.
--Locke.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
lengthen

late 14c., from length + -en (1). Related: Lengthened; lengthening. Earlier verb was simply length (c.1300).

Wiktionary
lengthen

vb. 1 (context transitive English) To make longer, to extend the length of. 2 (context intransitive English) To become longer.

WordNet
lengthen
  1. v. make longer; "Lengthen this skirt, please" [ant: shorten]

  2. become long or longer; "In Spring, the days lengthen" [ant: shorten]

Wikipedia

Usage examples of "lengthen".

There is no beard, the face being smooth and dark ashy, but on the fore-quarters and neck the hair lengthens into a magnificent mane, which sometimes reaches to the knees.

Jim had belonged to an order of Knights, who lengthened the rites with a picturesque ceremony of their own, and at first Bibbs wished to avoid this, but upon reflection he offered no objection-- he divined that the Knights and their service would be not precisely a consolation, but a satisfaction to his father.

He lengthened his stride, until for all his youth and strength Bora had to strain to keep pace with him.

The shadows on the lawn were lengthening, and Bungo had retreated from the garden seat.

At the end of an entire piece of music, or of some larger section of the piece, the cadence-chord, on the other hand, is often lengthened considerably, for the sake of the greater weight and decision of cadential interruption required at that place.

I made haste to lengthen the distance between me and the place where I had found the kindliest hospitality, the utmost politeness, the most tender care, and best of all, new health and strength, and as I walked I could not help feeling terrified at the danger I had been in.

The shadows of trees to the west lengthened, clutching at the cowering Runners like claws.

Then they lengthened to thirty feet and narrowed to thirteen inches, for Dinny had drawn her closer, and she had instantly responded.

Osiris as symbols referring to four things, the subsidence of the Nile into his channel, the cessation of the delicious Etesian winds before the hot blasts of the South, the encroachment of the lengthening night on the shortening day, the disappearance of the bloom of summer before the barrenness of winter.

In the middle of the next afternoon they couched the camels in the lengthening shadow of a small volcanic hillock and fed them on the fodder they had cut on the riverbank.

FONTANELLE The shadows were beginning to lengthen across the valley as the Ark rounded a bend in the stream and the little church spire of Fontanelle came into view.

Thick smoke from his revolver barrel drifted away in lengthening streams, and the side-wheeler slid downstream on its flat, keelless bottom.

In an attempt to lengthen the moment and make it seem she was thinking about it, Laree wiped the drieing tears from her face.

Rathyn automatically lengthened his strides as if to walk away from his inner turmoil.

The stem-vowel is lengthened if there is no consonant cluster following it.