Obs. [ad. L. extenuāt-us, pa. pple. of extenuāre: see next.]
a. Of the body or its parts: Shrunken, attenuated; whence, prostrated. b. Impoverished. c. Of a sound: Thin. Of a quality: Diminished; weakened. Of a number: Thinned out, reduced.
1528. Gardiner, in Pocock, Rec. Ref., I. l. 117. He is greatly extenuate therewith when it [gout] cometh.
1533. in Strype, Eccl. Mem., I. App. xli. 107. And by the same exaction of Annates, Bps. have been so extenuate, that they have not been able in a great part of their Lives, to repair their Churches, Houses & Manors.
1555. Eden, Decades, 132 b. The number of the poore wretches is woonderfully extenuate.
1605. Sylvester, Du Bartas, II. III. IV. 1153. That same Majesty … Is not extinguisht nor extenuate.
a. 1626. Bacon, New Atl. (1650), 31. Great sounds, Extenuate and sharpe.
1689. trans. Buchanan’s De Jure Regni apud Scotos, 9. The … Body is Cured … by nourishing that which is extenuate.
