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# lengthen

«lengthen» in Mova's school dictionary: **to make it longer: «lengthen a skirt», «lengthen a sentence»** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 1 sentence of Mova's corpora that use it.

### part of speech

verb (lengthen, lengthens, lengthened, lengthening)

### meaning for a pupil

1) To lengthen something means to make it longer: «lengthen a skirt», «lengthen a sentence». [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/L/lengthen/#m1)

2) To lengthen means to become longer: «The days lengthen in spring». [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/L/lengthen/#m2)

### sense in the lessons

In science and geography lessons about seasons (days lengthen in spring, shorten in autumn); in writing lessons pupils lengthen sentences with adjectives and clauses; in maths it means increasing a length. Phrases: «lengthen the days», «lengthen a stride».

### examples

- The days lengthen after midwinter. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/L/lengthen/#x1)
- Mum lengthened my trousers because I grew. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/L/lengthen/#x2)
- Can you lengthen this sentence with an adjective? [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/L/lengthen/#x3)
- The shadows lengthened as the sun went down. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/L/lengthen/#x4)
- Runners lengthen their stride to go faster. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/L/lengthen/#x5)
- The teacher lengthened break time because of the sunshine. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/L/lengthen/#x6)
- We lengthened the rope by tying two together. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/L/lengthen/#x7)
- The queue lengthened as more people came. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/L/lengthen/#x8)

### note

Regular verb. Made from length + en, like strengthen and widen. In maths, if a 10 cm line is lengthened by 3 cm, it becomes 13 cm long: «lengthen by» means add.

### In the corpora

- [I am gone like the shadow when it lengtheneth; I am shaken off as the locust.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/jps/PSA.2037/)

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «lengthen» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/L/lengthen/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.