Protract

Doubtless he shrives this woman to her smock; Else ne'er could he so long protract his speech.

1755, Samuel Johnson, A Dictionary of the English Language, London: J. and P. Knapton et al., Volume 1, Preface, I have protracted my work till most of those whom I wished to please, have sunk into the grave […]

I should wish now to protract this moment ad infinitum; but I dare not.

A bereft landscape of sad browns and sepias of winter lay all about us, the marshland drearily protracting itself towards the wide river.

Still, from these extraordinary pages you can learn that it's very bad to be burned alive on a windy day, because the breeze will keep flicking the flames away from you and thus protract the process.

This is a synopsis of our marches, which, protracted on Burckhardt’s map, gives an error of ten miles.

to protract a decision or duty

[…] Let us bury him, And not protract with admiration what Is now due debt. To the grave!

Then, since I’m sure to meet my Fate, How vain would Hope appear? Since Fear cannot protract the Date, How foolish ’twere to fear?

Both hoped to protract the discovery of what had happened—the mother, by interposing her bustling person betwixt Mr. Girder and the fire, and the daughter, by the extreme cordiality with which she received the minister and her husband […]