extenuation

noun

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

   “This mightily helpeth the extenuation of members.”

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

   “Galen commends tepid Baths for…curing all Extenuations.”

   “The extenuation is her only bad symptom.”

   “The female…exhibited…some symptoms of extenuation.”

2. (countable, obsolete, uncountable)The action of extenuating; extenuated condition.

   “Winds proceed from extenuation of the Air, by the Sun.”

3. (countable, obsolete, uncountable)The action of extenuating; extenuated condition.

   “All Dilatation is some degree of Extenuation.”

   “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.”

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

4. (countable, obsolete, uncountable)The action of extenuating; extenuated condition.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

   “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.”

6. (countable, obsolete, rhetoric, uncountable)The action of extenuating; extenuated condition.

   “We call him the Disabler or figure of Extenuation.”

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

   “1823, in Crabb, Technol. Dict.”

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

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

   “He…was to find excuses and extenuations for sins.”

   “Whatever may be said for the Extenuation of such Defects.”

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

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

8. (US, countable, humorous, in-plural, uncountable)The action of extenuating; extenuated condition.

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

   “One side wore…extenuations of a…green colour.”