Literary notes about protracted (AI summary)
In literature, “protracted” is employed to emphasize an extended, often burdensome duration in various contexts. It vividly conveys prolonged military conflicts and sieges, as seen when drawn-out struggles are recounted in wars and encampments ([1], [2], [3], [4]). The term also underscores interminable legal or political debates and negotiations, heightening the tension of drawn-out deliberations ([5], [6], [7]). In more personal narratives, “protracted” deepens the portrayal of enduring suffering, torturous experiences, or an agonizing wait for change ([8], [9], [10]). Through such usage, writers effectively infuse their narratives with a sense of time stretching beyond its natural course, thereby magnifying the inherent gravity and emotional impact of the described events ([11], [12]).
- Three persons of the name of Morosini, and several Mocenigos, made themselves famous in this protracted struggle.
— from The Art of War by baron de Antoine Henri Jomini - Gibraltar has stood several protracted sieges, one of them of nearly four years’ duration (it failed), and the English only captured it by stratagem.
— from The Innocents Abroad by Mark Twain - Yet the siege was protracted to seven months; and the rash invaders were encompassed and threatened by the inundation of the Nile.
— from The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon - When a mere youth Jonson enlisted as a soldier, trailing his pike in Flanders in the protracted wars of William the Silent against the Spanish.
— from The Alchemist by Ben Jonson - By the first he fulfils the wish of honesty and inexperience, that no civil suit should be protracted beyond the term of fifteen days.
— from The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon - After a protracted but fruitless discussion of over four hours, they withdrew from the room, declining to accept or to suggest any overtures.
— from The Life and Work of Susan B. Anthony (Volume 1 of 2) by Ida Husted Harper - —In the painful and protracted discussions attendant on these arrangements, powerful traits of national character were developed.
— from Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, v. 1 of 3 by James Tod - He was cruelly deliberate, and protracted the torture, as one who was delighted with the scene.
— from My Bondage and My Freedom by Frederick Douglass - But I was impatient to learn the cause of his protracted absence, and he proceeded to recount what had happened on board during my incarceration.
— from The Works of Edgar Allan Poe, The Raven Edition by Edgar Allan Poe - She recalled his long sad and severe look at those words and understood the meaning of the rebuke and despair in that protracted gaze.
— from War and Peace by graf Leo Tolstoy - 'Genius,' says Buffon, 'is only a protracted patience ( une longue patience ).'
— from The Principles of Psychology, Volume 1 (of 2) by William James - Properly they are but one protracted consciousness, one unbroken stream.
— from The Principles of Psychology, Volume 1 (of 2) by William James
