extend and lengthen imply a drawing out in space or time but extend may also imply increase in width, scope, area, or range.
extend a vacation
extend welfare services
lengthen a skirt
lengthen the workweek
prolong suggests chiefly increase in duration especially beyond usual limits.
prolonged illness
protract adds to prolong implications of needlessness, vexation, or indefiniteness.
protracted litigation
Example Sentences
the highway project was protracted by years of litigation
Recent Examples on the WebThat could take some time, that could really protract things. Taylor Wilson, USA TODAY, 18 Feb. 2022 Epidemics can be short-lived or protracted, or, like the Justinianic plague, recurrent. Elizabeth Kolbert, The New Yorker, 30 Mar. 2020 The process of making sourdough is protracted, but Petrarca and Richardson said the crusty, tangy result is worth the effort. David Lindquist, Indianapolis Star, 16 Apr. 2020 Ammon Bundy is the son of Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy, who in 2014 engaged in a protracted battled with the federal Bureau of Land Management over grazing rights for his cattle. Anna-maja Rappard, CNN, 9 Apr. 2020 Some of these regions have protracted and incredibly violent conflicts. John D'anna, azcentral, 17 Dec. 2019 Instead of yielding an emphatic victory for one side and, conversely, an incontrovertible defeat for the other, modern armed conflicts are prone to descend into protracted, drawn out endgames. Cian O'driscoll, Quartz, 2 Dec. 2019 But the road to the referendum was protracted and bloody.The Economist, 23 Nov. 2019 In his speech, Johnson delivered what amounted to a breezy dismissal of May’s protracted and ultimately unsuccessful efforts to win lawmakers’ approval for a divorce agreement with the EU. Christina Boyle, Los Angeles Times, 24 July 2019 See More
Word History
Etymology
Latin protractus, past participle of protrahere, literally, to draw forward, from pro- forward + trahere to draw — more at pro-