Also 4–5 extencioun, 6 extencion, 6–7 extention. The two forms extention (ME. extencioun) and extension are ad. L. extentiōn-em, extensiōn-em, n. of action f. extendĕre (pa. pples. extentus, -tensus) to EXTEND.]
1. The action of forcibly stretching or straining; strained state or condition. † a. Stretching or pulling out to greater length. Obs.
1526. Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W., 1531), 114 b. Thynke on his extension or paynfull straynyng on the crosse.
1599. A. M., trans. Gabelhouer’s Bk. Physicke, 207/2. Agaynst the Paralisis, or lamnes, & extentione of the Synnues.
1646. Sir T. Browne, Pseud. Ep., III. i. 105. That is an extension of the muscles and organs of motion maintaining the body at length.
1656. trans. Hobbes’ Elem. Philos. (1839), 344. Removed from their places by forcible compression or extension.
1824. Tredgold, Ess. Cast Iron, p. x. Experiments on the extension of bodies … when the strain exceeds the elastic force.
b. Surg. (See quot. 1860.)
1612. Woodall, Surg. Mate, Wks. (1653), 154. You must use extention almost to every Dislocation.
1676. Wiseman, Chirurg. Treat., VII. i. 467. The Extension made, the Extenders are to be loosened gently.
1753. Chambers, Cycl. Supp., s.v., When the fractured parts recede from one another, some degree of Extension is necessary.
1860. Mayne, Exp. Lex., Extension, the pulling of a fractured limb in a direction away from the trunk, in order to obviate retraction of the lower fragments; also applied to similar treatment in dislocations.
1884. Syd. Soc. Lex., Extension apparatus, In case of hip-joint disease extension is employed … to prevent the contact of the two diseased surfaces.
† c. The action of straining the capacity of a vessel, etc.; distention, swelling. Obs.
c. 1400. Lanfranc’s Cirurg., 98. Þat may be knowen … bi reednesse & extencioun of þe face.
1533. Elyot, Cast. Helthe, IV. iv. (1572), 78 b. An heuinesse with extencion or thrustinge out of the body.
1626. Bacon, Sylva (1627), vii. 171. Fulnesse of Meat … causeth an Extension of the Stomacke.
1662. R. Mathew, Unl. Alch., § 106. 185. This Powder you may use in all diseases where Humors do offend,… or extention above nature.
† d. Straining (of the voice). Obs.
a. 1653. Gouge, Comm. Hebr. v. 7 (1655), 496. Whether we take crying for extension of voice.
2. The action of straightening out, or of placing at full length.
1615. Crooke, Body of Man, 741. The second motion of the Muscle is Extention, which is not proper but aduentitious or accidentall: for when the contracted Muscle is extended it is loosened by another and not by it selfe.
1667. E. King, in Phil. Trans., II. 426. You may perceive a feeble motion of flexion and extension.
1872. Huxley, Physiol., vii. 174. The levers … are capable of performing … flexion and extension.… A limb is … extended, when it is straightened out.
3. The reaching or stretching (the arm, hand) out or forth; protrusion (of the tongue, etc.).
1741. Betterton, Eng. Stage, v. 67. This Extension of the Hand [upwards] sometimes signifies Pacification.
4. Law. The ‘extending’ of a protest: see EXTEND 9 c.
1889. Case Bp. Lincoln (1891), 51. On which day Brooks and Jenkins … in extension of such their Protest alleged, [etc.].
5. The fact or condition of extending or reaching to a certain distance or in a certain direction.
1790. Jas. Bruce, Source Nile, I. I. iii. 52. We entered a large and thick wood of palm-trees, whose greatest extension seemed to be south by east.
1856. Kane, Arct. Expl., I. xxiii. 309. Showing … the former extension of the Esquimaux race to the higher north.
6. The action or process of spreading out in area; the condition of being so spread out. † Also concr. A ‘stretch,’ expanse of country.
1684. T. Burnet, Th. Earth, I. I. vii. 86. This Foundation of the Earth upon the Waters, or extension of it above the Waters, doth agree to the antediluvian earth.
1786. W. Gilpin, Mts. & Lakes Cumbrld. (1788), I. 82. This extension of wild country we looked at with regret.
† b. Mode of extending superficially. Obs.
1570. Billingsley, Euclid, I. def. vii. 2. A plaine superficies, is the shortest extension or draught from one lyne to an other.
† c. Extensibility; capability of being extended (by dilution). Obs.
1594. Plat, Jewell-ho., Chem. Concl., 45. That infinite extention of the glasse of Antimonie.
† 7. The amount of space throughout which anything extends; size, extent. Obs.
1614. Selden, Titles Hon., 14. There were … some Monarchique States, but not of any large extension perhaps.
1677. Hale, Prim. Orig. Man., II. vii. 187. The quantity or extension of the Body of the Air … commonly called the Atmosphere.
a. 1693. R. Hooke, in Sir T. P. Blount, Nat. Hist. (1693), 202. Though I kept it … red-hot … yet it seem’d not at all to have diminish’d its extention.
1708. J. Chamberlayne, St. Gt. Brit., I. III. x. (1741), 204. The City of London … is of a vast Extention.
b. Physics and Metaph. The property of being extended or of occupying space; spatial magnitude.
1624. Gataker, Transubst., 162. As if locall extension … and other … sensible properties could not … be seuered from his owne bodie.
1647. H. More, Immort. Soul, II. iii. IV. 35. Extension That’s infinite implies a contradiction.
1690. Locke, Hum. Und., II. iv. § 5. 50. The Extension of Body, being nothing but the cohesion or continuity of solid, separable, moveable Parts; and the Extension of Space, the continuity of unsolid, inseparable, and immoveable Parts.
1816. J. Smith, Panorama Sci. & Art, I. 270. Extension is another property of matter inseparable from its existence.
1855. H. Spencer, Princ. Psychol., II. VI. xi. 147. Our perceptions of the specific extension of the body—its size and shape.
c. An extended body or space.
1739. Hume, Hum. Nat., II. ii. (1874), I. 337. If … any finite extension be infinitely divisible … a finite extension contains an infinite number of parts.
1813. Shelley, Q. Mab, VI. 231. A shrine is raised to thee … The sensitive extension of the world.
1836–7. Sir W. Hamilton, Metaph., xxvii. (1859), II. 160. The whole primary objects of sight, then, are colours, and extensions, and forms or figures of extension.
8. Of immaterial things: The range over which anything extends; degree of extensiveness.
1604. T. Wright, Passions, V. 293. The extension or varietie [of the obiects of delight] taketh away a certaine distastfull loathsomenesse which one kind of vniforme pleasure draweth with it.
1605. Camden, Rem. (1637), 21. And this tongue is of that extension at this present, that it reacheth from Suiserland … over all ancient Germany.
1651. Hobbes, Govt. & Soc., xvii. § 26. 330. A Christian City cannot be excommunicated, for a Christian City is a Christian Church … and of the same extension.
1761. Jenyns, Immort. Soul, I. 123. Rate not th’ extension of the human mind By the Plebeian standard of mankind.
1782. Sir J. Reynolds, Disc., xi. (1876), 36. The same extension of mind which gives the excellence of genius.
1846. Mill, Logic, Introd. § 7. The extension of Logic as a Science is determined by its necessities as an Art.
b. esp. in Logic. Of a term or concept: Its range as measured by the number of objects which it denotes or contains under it. Opposed to intension or comprehension.
[1677. Hale, Primitive Origination of Mankind, IV. iii. 311. God’s Perfections are infinite both in extention and intention.]
1725. Watts, Logick, I. iii. § 3. 54. The Extension of an universal Idea regards all the particular Kinds and single Beings that are contained under it…. So a Bowl, in its Extension, includes a wooden Bowl, a Brass Bowl, [etc.]. Ibid., III. ii. § 2. 432. In all affirmative Propositions, the Predicate has no greater Extension than the Subject; for its Extension is restrained by the Subject.
1864. Bowen, Logic, iv. 66. It denotes a number of objects…. This is its Quantity of Extension.
1876. Jevons, Logic Prim., 22. War-screw-steam-ship is a still narrower term, that is, has much less extension.
9. Enlargement. a. Increase in length; prolongation, lengthening.
1796–7. Instr. & Reg. Cavalry (1813), 216. Some small increase of distances between squadrons may be permitted … and whatever extension is thereby occasioned, will be immediately corrected.
1839. Murchison, Silur. Syst., I. xxxiv. 452. A considerable extension is given to the limestone.
1880. Hipkins, in Grove, Dict. Mus., II. 719/1. Broadwood … having carried the compass of the grand piano up to F, found that the wrestplank was so much weakened by this extension that [etc.].
b. concr. An extended portion; esp. an additional section, a prolongation (of a railway, or the like); also attrib.
1854. Act 17–8 Vict., c. cxxxiii. An Act to alter the Line of the London, Tilbury, and Southend Extension Railway.
1863. Bradshaw’s Railway Man., § 288. 271. By subsequent acts, an extension from Chepstow to Grange Court was authorised. Ibid. (1891), § 179. 231. The extension was opened for traffic on the 1st of March 1880.
1880. Haughton, Phys. Geog., vi. 300. The Alpine Flora occupies the extension southwards of the Arctic regions.
c. Gram. A word or words serving to amplify a subject or predicate; also an extended form (of a word) produced by the addition of a suffix.
d. Enlargement in duration.
Extension of time: (Comm.) the concession by a creditor of a later date than that stipulated for the payment of a debt. Also in Law, a grant of additional time for the fulfilment of legal formalities.
a. 1631. Donne, in Select. (1840), 30. This better resurrection is … an extension even of that eternity of happiness.
1880. Hipkins, in Grove, Dict. Mus., II. 722/1. In 1835 Pierre Erard obtained an extension of his patent.
e. Enlargement in area.
1841–71. T. R. Jones, Anim. Kingd. (ed. 4), 563. The extension of the shell is entirely effected by the margin of the mantle.
1854. Act 17–8 Vict., c. cxxv. (title), An Act for … the Extension of the Boundaries of the said Borough.
1884. Bower & Scott, De Bary’s Phaner. & Ferns, 581. When the normal cambium has begun its growth at the outer side of the ring of wood, radial extension … begins in a middle layer.
f. Enlargement in scope or operation.
1590. Swinburne, Testaments, 181 b. Which conclusion is diuersly … extended…. The first extension is, that [etc.].
1660. R. Coke, Power & Subj., 222. If the Sacriledge and extention of the civil Jurisdiction in giving the civil Magistrate licence to take cognizance of the publique Liturgy.
1791. Boswell, Johnson, an. 1712. What no child … could produce, without an extension of its faculties.
1844. H. H. Wilson, Brit. India, III. 164. The great extension of agriculture that followed the re-establishment of peace.
1853. O. Gordon, in Report Recomm. Oxf. Univ. Comm., 198. I look for the extension of the University to the poor.
1862. Sir B. Brodie, Psychol. Inq., II. i. 7. A question whether … the extension of human knowledge really leads to an extension of human happiness.
g. University Extension: the extending of the scope and work of the universities, esp. by affording some of the advantages of university teaching and examination to non-resident students.
1850. Mansel, Evid. Oxf. Univ. Comm., 19. I do not think that any great scheme of University extension is practicable in the present day.
1867. N. Brit. Rev., March, XLVI. 224. The various schemes of University extension which have been suggested.
1871. J. Stuart (title), A letter on University Extension.
1885. Moulton, Univ. Extension Movement, 4. University Extension is mainly occupied with carrying, by itinerant teachers, University teaching to the doors of the people who cannot come up to the Universities. Ibid., 45. Chesterfield University Extension Association … Northampton University Extension Society. Ibid., 27. To assign one-half of a winter’s session to a University Extension Course … University Extension Certificates in Science subjects.
10. attrib. a. (sense 1 b) as extension-apparatus, -splint. b. (sense 2) as extension-motion. c. (sense 9 a) as extension-ladder, -pedal, -table, etc. d. (sense 9 b) as extension-room.
1874. Knight, Dict. Mech., I. 818/2. *Extension-apparatus. (Surgical.) An instrument designed to counteract the natural tendency of the muscles to shorten when a limb has been fractured or dislocated. Ibid., 818–9. *Extension-ladder. A ladder having a movable section, which is projected in prolongation of the main section when occasion requires.
1859. Field Exerc. Infantry, I. § 4. 7. In order to supple the soldier … the following *extension motions will be practised.
1867. F. H. Ludlow, Brace of Boys, 288. He heard an earnest, boyish voice in the *extension-room.
1884. Syd. Soc. Lex., *Extension splint.
1864. Webster, *Extension table, a table that can readily be extended or contracted in length.
1884. N. Y. Herald, 27 Oct., 1/2. *Extension Top Phaetons.
