protracted
proh-TRAK-tidadjMeaning lasting much longer than expected or usual
Memory hook PRO-TRACT-ed: PULLED OUT long. Professor Edwin’s “short” talk gets pulled out longer and longer, until his audience nods off. It is a protracted talk.
After a protracted search, Nana Lou found her glasses on top of her head.
In context What was meant to be a quick ten-minute meeting became a protracted debate that ran past dinner and left everyone tired and hungry.
Similar prolonged, lengthy, drawn-out, extended
Opposite brief, short, quick
From Latin protrahere, “to drag forward, to draw out, to prolong”: pro (forward) + trahere (to pull).