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prolonged

/proʊˈlɑŋd/
/prəʊˈlɒŋd/
IPA guide

Something prolonged is long and drawn-out — it's taking longer than it should. A prolonged wait is usually annoying.

If a fan throws a drink on the court during a basketball game and it takes an hour to clean it up, and then another hour to re-wax the floor, and then another hour for the players to warm up again...that's a prolonged delay. Anything prolonged has been stretched out further than it should be. America's war with Vietnam was prolonged much longer than anyone expected. If something is tedious, time-consuming, and feels like it's taking forever, it's prolonged.

Definitions of prolonged
  1. adjective
    relatively long in duration; tediously protracted
    “a prolonged and bitter struggle”
    long
    primarily temporal sense; being or indicating a relatively great or greater than average duration or passage of time or a duration as specified
  2. adjective
    drawn out or made longer spatially
    “a prolonged black line across the page”
    long
    primarily spatial sense; of relatively great or greater than average spatial extension or extension as specified
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