Definition of "extenuation"

(countable and uncountable) The action of extenuating; extenuated condition.

1. The action or process of making or becoming thin; an instance of this; a shrunken condition; leanness, emaciation.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • This mightily helpeth the extenuation of members.

     1576, Jewell of Health, Baker, page 171 a

   • A yong man…had an extenuation for want of nourishment in his Limbs.

     1655, Culpepper, Riverius, i.v.19

   • Galen commends tepid Baths for…curing all Extenuations.

     1707, Floyer, Physic. Pulse-Watch, page 183

   • The extenuation is her only bad symptom.

     1781 October 27, Johnson, Let. Mrs. Thrale

   • The female…exhibited…some symptoms of extenuation.

     1825, Betrothed, Walter Scott, section XXX

   • Some pallid from extenuation.

     1828, “Biog.”, in Ann. Reg., page 474/2

2. (of air, obsolete) Making less dense; rarefaction.  quotations

   Quotations

   • Winds proceed from extenuation of the Air, by the Sun.

     1655–60, Stanley, Hist. Philos. (1701), page 64/2

3. (obsolete) The action or process of making slender or diminishing in bulk; an instance of this.  quotations

   Quotations

   • All Dilatation is some degree of Extenuation.

     1619, John Donne, Serm., xiv, page 140

   • The Sea is the same at all seasons; what it gets by Rivers and showers, losing by exhalations and extenuations through the excessive heats…within the Torrid Zone.

     1665, Sir T. Herbert, Trav., published 1677, page 186

   • Gregory the Great…says that God penetrates everything without extenuation.

     1777, Joseph Priestley, chapter XIX, in Disquisitions relating to Matter and Spirit, volume I, published 1782, page 229

4. (obsolete) The action of making less or weak; and instance of this; a weakening, impoverishment. Also, mitigation (of blame or punishment).  quotations

   Quotations

   • The saide citie is much decaid…not a little to the extenuacion of that part of this realme.

     1542–3, Act 34–5 Hen. VIII, c. 18

   • Such extenuation let me begge, As in reproofe of many Tales deuis’d…I may…Finde pardon on my true submission.

     c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Fourth, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act III, scene ii], line 22

   • The gallantry of Henry’s heroique spirit tended somewhat to the…extenuation of Charles his glory.

     1654, H. L’Estrange, Chas. I, published 1655, page 1

   • What Deeds of Charity we have to alledge in Extenuation of our Punishment.

     1707, Atterbury, Serm. v. (1723), volume II, page 159

5. The action of representing (something) as slight and trifling; underrating; an instance of this, a plea to this end; a modification in terms.  quotations

   Quotations

   • Sometimes…wee humble ourselves lower than there is cause…And no lesse well doth God take these submisse extenuations of our selves.

     1614, Bp. Hall, Recoll. Treat., page 209

   • Through their…extenuation [of their grievance], wretchedness and peevishness they undo themselves.

     1621, Burton, Anat. Mel., ii.i.iv.ii.228

   • Many died of it every day, so that now all our extenuations abated.

     1722, Daniel Defoe, Journal of the Plague Year, published 1840, page 6

   • The utmost they allow is an extenuation of its absolute necessity.

     1859, John Stuart Mill, On Liberty, ii. (1865), page 13/2

   • The simple matter-of-fact style of the narrative is, from its unobtrusive character, more adapted for spiritual reading than the views and generalisations, and prologetic extenuations of more recent biographers.

     1873, R.F. Calixte, translated by A.V.S. Sligo, The Life of the Venerable Anna Maria Taigi, page 303

   1. (rhetoric, obsolete) A figure in which a term is used which, in contrast with the more fitting term it supplants, understates or seeks to diminish the significance of something.  quotations

      Quotations

      • We call him the Disabler or figure of Extenuation.

        1589, Puttenham, Eng. Poesie iii. xix. (Arb.), page 227

      • When for extenuation sake we use a lighter and more easie word or terme then the matter requires.

        1657, J. Smith, Myst. Rhet., page 56

      • 1706, Phillips

6. The action of lessening, or seeking to lessen, the guilt of (an offence or fault) by alleging partial excuses; and instance or means of doing this; a plea in mitigation of censure.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • Extenuation, by which the Crime, that seemed great, is made lesse.

     1651, Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan, ii., xxvii., page 156

   • He…was to find excuses and extenuations for sins.

     ante 1674, Clarendon, Surv. Leviath. (1676), page 180

   • Whatever may be said for the Extenuation of such Defects.

     1712, Addison, Spect., № 297, ¶ 1

   • It may be urged, in extenuation of this crime…that [etc.].

     1750, Johnson, Rambler, № 39, ¶ 7

   • The differences of castes…furnish a copious stock of extenuations…to different classes of offences.

     ante 1832, Jeremy Bentham, Wks. (1843), volume I, page 174

   • In extenuation of a noble error.

     1839, Mackintosh, Eth. Philos., Wks. 1846, volume I, page 28

7. (US, humorous, in the plural as “extenuations”) Thin garments.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • They were clad in silken extenuations from the throat to the feet.

     1881 May, G.W. Cable, Scribner’s Mag., page 23

   • One side wore…extenuations of a…green colour.

     1883 September 12, Pall Mall G., page 2/2