extenuate
verb (used with object)
to represent (a fault, offense, etc.) as less serious.
extenuated
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past participleof extenuate.past participle
A verb form used in perfect and passive verb constructions and that can also function as a modifier.
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past tense formof extenuate.past tense
Used to describe completed actions or previous habitual actions.
extenuateverb (used with object)to represent (a fault, offense, etc.) as less serious.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Hooker’s problems have been particularly extenuated and traumatic, especially for a vaulter who had the skill and composure to set an Olympic record of 19-6½ at the 2008 Beijing Games.
From New York Times ● Aug. 8, 2012
We want not to see what Fuseli termed drapery "snapped instead of folded," faces bloated into apoplexy, or extenuated into skeletons; colour borrowed from the jars in a druggist's shop, and expression forced into caricature.
From Six Centuries of Painting by Randall Davies
For nothing was hid, nothing extenuated, for a single moment, to a single eye.
From Denis Dent A Novel by Ernest W. Hornung
One is extenuated and the other extended; one is invisible the other is visible.
From The Christian Foundation, Or, Scientific and Religious Journal, Volume I, No. 7, July, 1880 by Aaron Walker
He no longer doubted his son's guilt, he even despaired of drawing from the lad a frank admission that might somewhat have extenuated the ugly action.
From The Pocket Bible or Christian the Printer A Tale of the Sixteenth Century by Eug?ne Sue
