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▪ I. † exˈtenuate, ppl. a. and a. Obs.
[ad. L. extenuāt-us, pa. pple. of extenuāre: see next.]
a. Of the body or its parts: Shrunken, attenuated; whence, prostrated.
b. Impoverished.
c. Of a sound: Thin. Of a quality: Diminished; weakened. Of a number: Thinned out, reduced.
1528Gardiner in Pocock Rec. Ref. I. l. 117 He is greatly extenuate therewith when it [gout] cometh. 1533in Strype Eccl. Mem. I. App. xli. 107 By the same exaction of annates, bps. have been so extenuate that they have not been able..to repair their Churches. 1555Eden Decades 132 The number of the poore wretches is woonderfully extenuate. 1605Sylvester Du Bartas ii. iii. iv. 1153 That same Majesty..Is not extinguisht nor extenuate. a1626Bacon New Atl. (1650) 31 Great sounds, Extenuate and sharpe. 1689tr. Buchanan's De Jure Regni apud Scotos 9 The..Body is Cured..by nourishing that which is extenuate.
▪ II. extenuate, v.|ɛkˈstɛnjuːeɪt|
[f. L. extenuāt- ppl. stem of extenuāre, f. ex- (see ex- prefix1) + tenuis thin. Cf. F. exténuer.]
I. To make thin, slender, or weak.
1. trans. To make (the body, flesh, a person) thin or lean; to render emaciated or shrunken. Somewhat arch.
1533Elyot Cast. Helthe iii. xii. (1541) 66 Sorowe..dothe extenuate or make the body leane. 1650H. Brooke Conserv. Health 160 They that are fat may exercise ad Sudorem..and that will extenuate them. 1669Woodhead St. Teresa ii. 282 The flesh is extenuated every day more and more. 1717J. Keill Anim. Oecon. (1738) 292 Bodies..which are extenuated by Hunger. 1824Southey Bk. of Ch. (1841) 182 It was deemed meritorious..to extenuate it [the body] by fasting. 1862Carlyle Fredk. Gt. ix. vii, Extenuated with fatigues. 1887Lecky Eng. in 18th C. V. xx. 385 Peasants were so extenuated by hunger that they could scarcely hold the spade.
†2. To draw out to thinness; to beat (metal) into thin plates. Obs.
1599Hakluyt Voy. II. ii. 90 The Chinians can very cunningly beate and extenuate gold into plates and leaues. 1603Knolles Hist. Turks (1621) 537 The straightnesse of the waies enforced the Turks to extenuat their rankes. 1655W. F. Meteors 164 Gold..extenuated as fine as the threds in the Spiders web. 1681Grew Musæum i. v. 85 His [the Sawfish's] body behind his head becomes..broad..from whence it is again extenuated all the way to the end of his Tail.
¶ To stretch out; also intr. ? Confused with extend.
1583Stubbes Anat. Abus. (1877) 54 Rather abbreuiat oure dayes by manye yeres, than extenuate our liues one minut of an houre. 1601Chester Love's Mart. vi. (1878) 81 The plaines..Whose fertill bounds farre doth extenuate.
3. To thin out in consistency, render less dense.
1559Morwyng Evomym., Moist thinges put into a body by the force of heate are extenuated into a vapour. 1601Holland Pliny (1634) I. 431 To extenuate that grosse substance into which the Oliue had turned the..iuice and humor. 1638G. Sandys Job 46 He the congealed vapors melts againe Extenuated into drops of Raine. 1686Goad Celest. Bodies ii. xii. 322 A misle of Vapour or Fume may be extenuated into some hundreds [of miles]. 1800Vince Hydrostat. vii. 81 Accumulating and extenuating the air.
†b. spec. in Med. To render thinner (the humours or concretions of the body, etc.); = attenuate 2 b. Obs.
1563T. Hill Art Garden. (1593) 71 The seeds doe extenuate and diminishe the clammy and grosse humours. 1610Markham Masterp. ii. clxxiii. 487 It extenuateth humors.
absol.1533Elyot Cast. Helthe (1541) 27 a, Almondes do extenuate and clense. 1607Topsell Serpents (1608) 624 Those medicines..which do extenuate.
†c. To thin out (the hair, eyebrows, etc.). Obs.
1585Lloyd Treas. Health B j, Want of theyr humours doth extenuat the same [hair]. 1661Lovell Hist. Anim. & Min. 39 The fat..extenuateth the eyebrows.
4.
†a. To diminish in size, number, or amount; to reduce to meagre dimensions. Obs.
1555Eden Decades 273 By forcible extenuatinge the gooddes and poure of them whom they desired to kepe in subiection. 1630R. Johnson's Kingd. & Commw. 22 Small numbers are soon..extenuated by a long warre. 1634Sir T. Herbert Trav. 205 In which Citie is a great Colossus..To extenuate the bulke of this their Pagod, they place him sitting. 1647Sprigge Anglia Rediv. iii. v. (1854) 164 [They] were reduced to so much lesser number; and were yet further extenuated.
†b. To lessen (a quality, etc.) in degree; to weaken the force of (a blow), mitigate (a law). Obs.
1561T. Norton Calvin's Inst. ii. 90 We do obscure and extenuate it [God's grace] with our vnthankfulnesse. 1590Shakes. Mids. N. i. i. 120 Else the Law of Athens yeelds you vp (Which by no meanes we may extenuate) To death. 1598E. Guilpin Skial. (1878) 45 Some great sicknes..doth..extenuate Thy fraile remembrance. 1643Prynne Sov. Power Parl. App. 162 Kings cannot by Law change or extenuate Laws. 1672Sir T. Browne Lett. Friend vi. (1881) 130 The incurable state of his disease might somewhat extenuate your Sorrow. 1744Shenstone Wks. & Lett. (1777) III. 100 No time shall extenuate our mutual friendship. 1773J. Ross Fratricide (MS.) iv. 53 A heaviness..Extenuates my strength.
II. To lessen in representation.
†5. ‘To diminish in honour’ (J.), depreciate, disparage (a person, his actions, or attributes). Obs.
1601Weever Mirr. Mart. C iij b, Extenuate no more worth's matchlesse deedes. 1605Bacon Adv. Learn. i. ii. §3 It hath beene ordinarie..to extenuate and disable learned men by the names of Pedantes. 1667Milton P.L. x. 645 Just are thy ways..Who can extenuate thee? 1705Stanhope Paraphr. II. 380 The Reply he made, extenuates the One, when put into the Ballance with the Other.
6. To estimate or state at a low figure; to disparage the magnitude or importance of; to underrate, make light of. Somewhat arch.
1529More Dyaloge iii. Wks. 1218/1 With wordes and reasoning, to extenuate and minysh the vygour and asperite of the paynes. 1553T. Wilson Rhet. 58 b, In accusyng any persone it is best..whereas anythyng semeth to make for hym to extenuate the same to the outermoste. 1607Norden Sun. Dial. 34 The feare of this maketh the Tenants to extenuate the values. 1625–8tr. Camden's Hist. Eliz. iv. (1688) 626 Cuffe extenuated both the Danger and Difficulty. 1658Sir T. Browne Hydriot. iv, Nor can we extenuate the valour of ancient Martyrs. 1749Fielding Tom Jones vii. xi, Every man seemed wholly bent to extenuate the sum which fell to his share. 1832Lyell Princ. Geol. II. 288 Extenuating the comparative magnitude of coral limestones. 1882Seeley Nat. Relig. ii. i. 128 Christianity has never altogether denied, but only extenuated the claims of Art and Science.
7. esp. To underrate, treat as of trifling magnitude (guilt, faults, crimes). Hence, in later use: To lessen, or seek to lessen, the seeming magnitude of (guilt or offence) by partial excuses. Also of circumstances: To serve as an extenuation of.
1570T. Norton tr. Nowel's Catech. (1853) 149 Let no man extenuate the most heinous offence of man as a small trespass. 1651Hobbes Leviath. ii. xxvii. 154 None that can Excuse (though some of them may Extenuate) a Crime. 1693Congreve Juv. xi. 295 Fortune, there, extenuates the Crime. What's Vice in me, is only Mirth in him. 1840Macaulay Clive 93 The same sense of justice..forbids us to conceal or extenuate the faults of his earlier days. 1871Morley Voltaire (1886) 160 A baseness that we ought never to pardon and never to extenuate.
¶b. Improperly used for: To extenuate the guilt of; to plead partial excuses for.
1741Middleton Cicero II. viii. 141 Pompey's fate would extenuate the omission of that step. 1791Mrs. Radcliffe Rom. Forest x, She..endeavoured to extenuate the conduct of Madame La Motte. 1811Lamb Immod. Indulg. Palate Wks. (1889) 635 He thought it necessary to extenuate the length of time he kept the dinner on the table. 1860All Y. Round No. 67. 404 The purser's steward..extenuated himself calmly enough. |