extenuation

noun9

1. •
   The action of extenuating; extenuated condition.
2. •
   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. — 1651
3. •
   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. — 1614
4. •
   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. — 1576
5. •
   [in the plural] (US, humorous) Thin garments.

   • They were clad in silken extenuations from the throat to the feet. — 1881
6. •
   (no longer used) 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. — 1542
7. •
   (rhetoric, no longer used) 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. — 1589
8. •
   (no longer used) Making less dense; rarefaction.

   • Winds proceed from extenuation of the Air, by the Sun. — 1655
9. •
   (no longer used) The action or process of making slender or diminishing in bulk; an instance of this.

   • All Dilatation is some degree of Extenuation. — 1619