protract

Etymology

From the past participle stem of Latin prōtrahō, essentially pro- + tract.

verb

1. To draw out; to extend, especially in duration.
   1755, Samuel Johnson, A Dictionary of the English Language, London: J. and P. Knapton et al., Volume 1, Preface, I have protracted my work till most of those whom I wished to please, have sunk into the grave […]
   A bereft landscape of sad browns and sepias of winter lay all about us, the marshland drearily protracting itself towards the wide river. 1979, Angela Carter, “The Tiger’s Bride”, in Burning Your Boats: The Collected Short Stories, New York: Henry Holt, published 1996, page 165
   Still, from 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. 2010 Mar, Christopher Hitchens, “The Men Who Made England”, in The Atlantic
2. To use a protractor.
3. (surveying) To draw to a scale; to lay down the lines and angles of, with scale and protractor; to plot.
   This is a synopsis of our marches, which, protracted on Burckhardt’s map, gives an error of ten miles. 1856, Richard Francis Burton, Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to El Medinah and Meccah, London: Longman, Brown, Green and Longmans, Volume 3, Chapter 25, page 147, footnote
4. To put off to a distant time; to delay; to defer.
   to protract a decision or duty
   Then, since I’m sure to meet my Fate, How vain would Hope appear? Since Fear cannot protract the Date, How foolish ’twere to fear? 1736, Stephen Duck, “To Death”, in Poems on Several Occasions, London: for the author, page 146
5. To extend; to protrude.
   A cat can protract and retract its claws.