Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • transitive & intransitive verb To make or grow longer.
  • adjective Made longer; extended.
  • adjective Having more length than width; slender.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Lengthened; extended or produced; attenuated; specifically, in zoology and botany, disproportionately or comparatively long or extended: as, a worm has an elongate body; a proboscis is an elongate snout; elongate antennæ are about as long as the body of an insect; elongate elytra extend beyond the abdomen; an elongate flower-stem.
  • To make long or longer; lengthen; extend, stretch, or draw out in length: as, to elongate a rope by splicing.
  • To remove further off.
  • To recede; move to a greater distance; particularly, to recede apparently from the sun, as a planet in its orbit.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Drawn out at length; elongated.
  • intransitive verb rare To depart to, or be at, a distance; esp., to recede apparently from the sun, as a planet in its orbit.
  • transitive verb To lengthen; to extend; to stretch.
  • transitive verb obsolete To remove further off.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective lengthened, extended.
  • adjective slender.
  • verb To make long or longer by pulling and stretching; to make elongated.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb make long or longer by pulling and stretching
  • adjective (of a leaf shape) long and narrow
  • adjective having notably more length than width; being long and slender

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Late Latin ēlongāre, ēlongāt-; see eloign.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

New Latin elongare, elongat-, a combination of ex- ("out") + longus ("long").

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Examples

  • "elongate" the bankruptcy to earn a bonus of as much as $52.5 million if it can raise $45

    BusinessWeek.com -- Top News 2010

  • Second, the best CWBs, like this one, have their belt loops higher than your waist, a neat trick to elongate your legs.

    How to dress: Coats and belts Jess Cartner-Morley 2010

  • The sexiest mini-wedge out there is without question Sigerson Morrison's "Kramer," with it's Mondrian-like cutouts in black suede, £410, which elongate the foot and show just enough racy toe cleavage to excite even the least ardent foot fetishist amongst us.

    Sensible and Stylish Summer Sandals Tina Gaudoin 2011

  • Another reason could be because of a splay foot where the ligaments weaken and the foot can elongate and widen.

    Dr. Steve Rosenberg: How to Find Your True Shoe Size Dr. Steve Rosenberg 2011

  • “We had always expected a gap-filler with typically intermediate features such as a moderately elongate tail – neither long nor short – but the strange thing about Darwinopterus is that it has a head and neck just like that of advanced pterosaurs, while the rest of the skeleton, including a very long tail, is identical to that of primitive forms”.

    Darwinopterus, the New Flying Reptile 2009

  • ALWAYS extend at least one-eighth of an inch outside of the outer corner to elongate the eye.

    Paul Venoit: Smokey Eyes Still Smolder Thousands of Years Later Paul Venoit 2011

  • These elongate the front of the foot and the leg, and will come in very handy with the new maxi.

    Must Haves for Spring Tina Gaudoin 2011

  • I will endeavor to preserve them as they elongate; protecting them from the distortion of multiple seasons.

    Archive 2009-04-01 Jessica 2009

  • ALWAYS extend at least one-eighth of an inch outside of the outer corner to elongate the eye.

    Paul Venoit: Smokey Eyes Still Smolder Thousands of Years Later Paul Venoit 2011

  • I will endeavor to preserve them as they elongate; protecting them from the distortion of multiple seasons.

    Recordatio Jessica 2009

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