protracting
Extending in duration
Protracting means extending or drawing something out over time, making it last longer than necessary or expected.
When negotiations are protracting, they're dragging on without resolution.
The lawyers kept protracting the settlement talks.
The word also has a technical sense in anatomy and geometry, where it means extending a body part outward or drawing lines to scale on paper.
To make longer
sustain · continue · perpetuate · spin out · drag on · string out · pad · expand
Extended beyond normal duration
- long-windedExcessively wordy, tediously so
- interminableWithout apparent conclusion
- prolongedMade to last longer
- wearisomeCausing fatigue through monotony
tiresome · laborious · plodding · monotonous · dragging · endless · never-ending · overlong
elongate
To make longer
draw out · sustain · continue · perpetuate · spin out · drag on · string out · pad · expand · amplify
drawn-out
Extended beyond normal duration
- long-windedExcessively wordy, tediously so
- interminableWithout apparent conclusion
- prolongedMade to last longer
wearisome · tiresome · laborious · plodding · monotonous · dragging · endless · never-ending · overlong · lengthy
postpone
Delay to later time
procrastinate · stall · dawdle · tarry · dally · temporize · drag out · hold off · put off · delay
protractingshortening
Reducing length or duration
curtailing · abbreviating · truncating · cutting short · condensing
protractingretracting
Withdrawing a statement
withdrawing · drawing back · pulling back · pulling in · receding