extenuation

noun extenuations · extenuacion

1. countable, uncountable The action or process of making or becoming thin; an instance of this; a shrunken condition; leanness, emaciation. This mightily helpeth the extenuation of members.
2. countable, obsolete, uncountable, of air Making less dense; rarefaction. Winds proceed from extenuation of the Air, by the Sun.
3. countable, obsolete, uncountable The action or process of making slender or diminishing in bulk; an instance of this. All Dilatation is some degree of Extenuation.
4. countable, obsolete, uncountable The action of making less or weak; and instance of this; a weakening, impoverishment. Also, mitigation (of blame or punishment). The saide citie is much decaid…not a little to the extenuacion of that part of this realme.
5. countable, uncountable The action of representing (something) as slight and trifling; underrating; an instance of this, a plea to this end; a modification in terms. Sometimes…wee humble ourselves lower than there is cause…And no lesse well doth God take these submisse extenuations of our selves.
6. countable, obsolete, rhetoric, uncountable A figure in which a term is used which, in contrast with the more fitting term it supplants, understates or seeks to diminish the significance of something. We call him the Disabler or figure of Extenuation.
7. countable, uncountable The action of lessening, or seeking to lessen, the guilt of (an offence or fault) by alleging partial excuses; and instance or means of doing this; a plea in mitigation of censure. Extenuation, by which the Crime, that seemed great, is made lesse.
8. US, countable, humorous, in plural, uncountable, as “extenuations” Thin garments. They were clad in silken extenuations from the throat to the feet.