How to Use protract in a Sentence

protract

verb
Definition of protractnext
Synonyms for protractnext
  • The strike would be the first in 15 years and history suggests it could be protracted.
    — Anousha Sakoui, Los Angeles Times, 28 Apr. 2023
  • But the road to the referendum was protracted and bloody.
    — The Economist, 23 Nov. 2019
  • This will be bloody, long and protracted, something the coalition does not want.
    — Hollie McKay, Fox News, 6 Aug. 2018
  • That could take some time, that could really protract things.
    — Taylor Wilson, USA TODAY, 18 Feb. 2022
  • The mean girl, the underdog, the sassy gay man, and the others, who have little function beyond protracting the process.
    — Chicago Reader, 2 Aug. 2017
  • Hong Kong’s 2019 pro-democracy protests were the largest and most protracted in the city’s history.
    — Ellen Bork, WSJ, 7 Nov. 2023
  • The finale is protracted to the point of exhaustion, as the music hits a climactic wall and then runs into it again and again.
    — Alex Ross, The New Yorker, 21 Apr. 2017
  • 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
  • Slowly lower your arms back to the starting position, allowing the scapula to protract and get a full stretch at the bottom.
    — Diego Mercado, Men's Health, 17 Jan. 2023
  • If such a downturn is prolonged and protracted, months after the fact it is labeled a recession.
    — Jeff Sommer, New York Times, 7 Apr. 2023
  • Then there’s more small talk and finally a protracted goodbye.
    — David Pierce, WSJ, 8 July 2018
  • Already, the war has stretched for more than 14 months, making a yearslong protracted conflict more likely.
    — Paul Sonne, BostonGlobe.com, 6 May 2023
  • On Sunday, Washington felt and beheld a day of warmth, haze and protracted sunshine.
    — Martin Weil, Washington Post, 19 June 2023
  • The result of these won't be known for at least three weeks, protracting the negotiations, which have already taken months.
    — Jeremy Wallace, Houston Chronicle, 21 Feb. 2018
  • The length may set a record for the court system in the nation’s capital and is likely among the most protracted in the history of American jurisprudence.
    — Peter Jamison, Washington Post, 29 May 2017
  • The United States fought bloody and protracted wars in Korea and Vietnam and yet abstained from playing its nuclear trump card.
    — Andrew F. Krepinevich, Foreign Affairs, 12 Dec. 2023
  • Emma Bovary to debt, seedy affairs and protracted death by arsenic.
    — Parul Sehgal, New York Times, 27 Mar. 2017
  • Cost overruns lead to projects going way over budget, and there are often protracted battles over routing.
    — Phillip Molnar, San Diego Union-Tribune, 15 Dec. 2023
  • The answer is yes, but they’re not protracted conversations.
    — Brian Davids, The Hollywood Reporter, 1 July 2023
  • The improbable, protracted, yet oh-so-close resurrection of Tip Top Café is in a holding pattern because of two things.
    — Matt Wake | Mwake@al.com, al, 26 Jan. 2023
  • Disagreements among advisers, while at times robust and protracted, have barely surfaced in the press.
    — Susan B. Glasser, The New Yorker, 9 Oct. 2023
  • But Napoleon is protracted, as if running time and rambling narrative incidents (the back-and-forth from battlefield to Josephine) amounted to substance.
    — Armond White, National Review, 24 Nov. 2023
  • Epidemics can be short-lived or protracted, or, like the Justinianic plague, recurrent.
    — Elizabeth Kolbert, The New Yorker, 30 Mar. 2020
  • Even if Hamas agrees to the framework, negotiations between the two sides regarding those numbers could prove protracted.
    — Matt Bradley, NBC News, 4 Feb. 2024
  • Pitt’s revelations came in the wake of his 2016 divorce from Jolie, which has devolved into bitter and protracted legal battles over the custody of their six children and the division of assets.
    — Martha Ross, The Mercury News, 7 Feb. 2024
  • As such, McCarthy’s comments might best be viewed as an early salvo in what could be protracted negotiations to avert a debt ceiling crisis.
    — Bryan Keogh, The Conversation, 19 Apr. 2023
  • But the high costs and protracted time period needed to comply with myriad state and local laws means that building new housing continues to be expensive and slow.
    — Phillip Molnar, San Diego Union-Tribune, 17 Mar. 2023
  • Nonetheless, court battles over estates can be costly and protracted and aren’t limited to celebrities.
    — Winnie Sun, Forbes, 19 Apr. 2023
  • Among other things, the suit stated that Match had made a $450 million offer for the company last year that Bumble rebuffed, sparking a protracted back-and-forth over Bumble’s valuation.
    — Leigh Gallagher, Fortune, 27 June 2018
  • Talks have been both protracted and tense, kicking off with a traditional handshake meeting, during which Fain refused to shake hands with the CEOs in attendance, and have yielded only marginal gains in the months since.
    — Breanne Deppisch, Washington Examiner, 13 Sep. 2023

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'protract.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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