Verb

(en verb)

To draw out; to extend, especially in duration.

*2010 , (Christopher Hitchens), ‘The Men Who Made England’, The Atlantic , Mar 2010:

*:Still, form these extraordinary pages you can learn that it's very bad to be burned alive on a windy day, because the breeze will keep flicking the flames away from you and thus protract the process.

To use a protractor.

(surveying) To draw to a scale; to lay down the lines and angles of, with scale and protractor; to plot.

To put off to a distant time; to delay; to defer.

to protract a decision or duty

(Shakespeare)

To extend; to protrude.

A cat can protract and retract its claws.

Verb

(en verb)

To become wide or wider.

His eyes widened as her negligee fell to the floor.

To make wide or wider.

* {{quote-news

, year=2011 , date=September 29 , author=Tom Rostance , title=Stoke 2 - 1 Besiktas , work=BBC Sport citation , page= , passage=But he still saw his side produce a rousing display which owed much to their lauded prowess from set-pieces, despite Uefa regulations meaning the pitch had to be widened and, in the process, the run-up area for Delap's long throws reduced.}}

To let out clothes to a larger size.

She widened his trousers for him.

To broaden or extend in scope or range.

The police widened their enquiries.