Obs. [f. LENGTH sb.]
1. trans. To lengthen, prolong.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 5400. Now haue we noght ware-wit we mai Lenght our liue wit fra þis dai. Ibid., 21099. Thomas soght þat estrin thede … And tar he lenthid his sermon, Bituix-and til his passion. Ibid., 28850. Almus … it lenkithes man in life to lende.
c. 1350. Will. Palerne, 4353. Lengþeþ now my lif for loue of heuene king.
1393. Langl., P. Pl., C. XXI. 53. And beden hym drynke Hus deþ to lette and hus dayes lengthen.
c. 1440. Jacob’s Well, 196. Lengthe þou þe handyl of þi penauns wyth þis iiij. spanne of lengthe, þat is, of restitucyoun.
a. 1450. Story Alexander, in Alexander (1886), 281. Howe might a man make other mennes liues euerlastyng whan he may not lennthe hys awne life one houre?
1513. Douglas, Æneis, II. xi. [x.] 139. Gif goddis likit lynth my life langar space.
1530. Palsgr., 606/1. I length a thyng, I make it longer, je alongis.
1610. Daniel, Tethys Festiv., F 3 b. When your eyes haue done their part, Thought must length it in the hart.
c. 1614. Sir W. Mure, Dido & Æneas, II. 472. A rod he bears, by which he … Lenthes and abridges life, as he desires.
1622. J. Taylor (Water P.), Water-Cormorant, Wks. (1630), III. 5/2. Drinke was ordain’d to length mans fainting breath.
2. intr. To become longer.
c. 1400. trans. Secreta Secret., Gov. Lordsh., 74. In þat tyme þe nyght lenghthys, þe days shorten.
1574. W. Bourne, Regiment for Sea, Introd. (1577), C ij b. The day dooth … length and short according unto the swiftnesse and slownesse of the Sunnes declination.
