''protrude'' ▫ᴱᴺ Entries

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''protrude'' ▫ᴱᴺ｜Definition｜1st｜20260606185347-00-⌔

protrude - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

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Verb

protrude (third-person singular simple present protrudes, present participle protruding, simple past and past participle protruded)

• (transitive)
  • To cause (something) to extend above, beyond, or from a boundary or surface; to cause (something) to project or stick out.
    • ✤ Synonym: (rare) protuberate
    • ✤ With thoſe that ſtretcht along the Weſtern Coaſt;/To whom the old Creonian Towns were loſt,/Where high Epidium midſt th’ Hibernian Waves,/Protrudes his Head, and all their Monſters braves.¹
    • ✤ He, when young Spring protrudes the burſting gems,/Marks the firſt bud, and ſucks the healthful gale/Into his freſhen’d ſoul; […]²
    • ✤ Before me soared the great promontory of Penmaen Mawr, protruding itself into the sea […]³
    • ✤ Mr Hawley’s disgust at the notion of the ‘Pioneer’ being edited by an emissary, and of Brooke becoming actively political—as if a tortoise of desultory pursuits should protrude its small head ambitiously and become rampant—was hardly equal to the annoyance felt by some members of Mr Brooke’s own family.⁴
    • ✤ Then […] I perceived something stir. I made a run for this, but before I reached it a brown object separated itself, rose on two muddy legs and protruded two drooping, bleeding hands.⁵
    • ✤ The man protruded the tip of a white tongue, licked the place where his lips should have been, and then passed on.⁶
  • (obsolete)
    • (also figurative) To thrust (someone or something) forward; to drive or force along.
      • ✤ […] ye people standyng round about […] cried out, incontinently for the deliuerie of the Ladie, & for vengeaunce to be taken of hym, whiche so wickedly had protruded her into that daunger:⁷
      • ✤ […] Palſies do oftneſt happen upon the left ſide if underſtood in this ſenſe; the moſt vigorous part protecting it ſelfe, and protruding the matter upon the weaker and leſſe reſiſtive ſide: […]⁸
      • ✤ For in case of general disturbance, nothing is more familiar then for several Factions, of several, and sometimes of contrary inclinations and interests, to protrude and drive on one and the same design, to several intents and purposes.⁹
      • ✤ Of pure Space then, and Solidity, there are ſeveral (amongſt which, I confeſs my ſelf one) who perſuade themſelves, they have clear and diſtinct Ideas; and that they can think on Space, without any thing in it, that reſiſts, or is protruded by Body; […]¹⁰
    • (figurative) To put forward (an opinion, etc.) in an overly assertive manner; to obtrude.
    • (rare) To cause (something) to emerge.
• (intransitive)
  • To extend above, beyond, or from a boundary or surface; to bulge outward, to project, to stick out.
    • ✤ Synonyms: jut, protuberate
    • ✤ The old woman’s face was wrinkled, her two remaining teeth protruded over her under lip, and her eyes were bright and piercing.¹¹
    • ✤ A sheaf of papers was held in his shirt pocket by a little fence of fountain pens and yellow pencils; and from his hip pocket protruded a notebook with metal covers.¹²
    • ✤ On the Visby-Västerhejde Railway there is a steam car. […] The upperworks consist of a short clerestory coach body with end platforms and the engine chimney protruding from the roof like a stovepipe.¹³
    • ✤ Archegonia are surrounded early in their development by the juvenile perianth, through the slender beak of which the elongated neck of the fertilized archegonium protrudes.¹⁴
  • (obsolete) To emerge with some speed; to shoot out.

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin prōtrūdere, the present active infinitive of prōtrūdō (“to push or thrust forwards; to protrude”), from prō- (“prefix denoting a forward direction or movement”) (from Proto-Indo-European ﹡pro- (“forward; toward”)) + trūdō (“to push, shove, thrust”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European ﹡trewd- (“to push, thrust”)).¹⁵

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA: /pɹəˈtɹuːd/
• Audio (Southern England): 🔊
• (General American) IPA: /pɹəˈtɹud/, /pɹoʊ-/
• Rhymes: -uːd
• Hyphenation: pro‧trude

Printed 2026-06-28.

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Footnotes

1. 1695, Richard Blackmore, “Book IX”, in Prince Arthur. An Heroick Poem. […], 2nd edition, London: […] Awnsham and John Churchil […], →OCLC, page 267: ↩

2. 1730, James Thomson, “Autumn. Inscribed to the Right Honourable Arthur Onslow, Esq; Speaker of the House of Commons.”, in The Seasons, London: [s.n.], →OCLC, page 185, lines 1213–1215: ↩

3. 1781, Thomas Pennant, A Tour in Wales ‎${}^{[1]}$, volume 2, London, page 303: ↩

4. 1872, George Eliot [pseudonym; Mary Ann Evans], chapter XXXVII, in Middlemarch […], volume II, Edinburgh; London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC, book IV, pages 247–248: ↩

5. 1900 December – 1901 August, H[erbert] G[eorge] Wells, “The First Making of Cavorite”, in The First Men in the Moon, London: George Newnes, […], published 1901, →OCLC, page 31: ↩

6. 1949 June 8, George Orwell [pseudonym; Eric Arthur Blair], chapter 9, in Nineteen Eighty-Four: A Novel, London: Secker & Warburg, →OCLC; republished[Australia]: Project Gutenberg of Australia, August 2001, part 2, page 205: ↩

7. 1566, William Painter, The Palace of Pleasure, London: Richard Tottell and William Jones, Volume 1, The.xlj. Nouell,${}^{[2]}$ ↩

8. 1646, Thomas Browne, “Of the Right and Left Hand”, in Pseudodoxia Epidemica: […], London: […] T[homas] H[arper] for Edward Dod, […], →OCLC, 4th book, pages 190–191: ↩

9. 1655, Hamon L’Estrange, The Reign of King Charles, London: Edward Dod and Henry Seile, p. 169,${}^{[3]}$ ↩

10. 1689 (indicated as 1690), [John Locke], “Of Solidity”, in An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding. […], London: […] Eliz[abeth] Holt, for Thomas Basset, […], →OCLC, book II, § 5, page 50: ↩

11. 1837 April, Boz [pseudonym; Charles Dickens], “Oliver Mingles with New Associates, and, Going to a Funeral for the First Time, Forms an Unfavourable Notion of His Master’s Business”, in Oliver Twist; […], volume I, London: Richard Bentley, […], published 1838, →OCLC, page 83: ↩

12. 1939 April 14, John Steinbeck, chapter 20, in The Grapes of Wrath, New York, N.Y.: The Viking Press, →OCLC, page 272: ↩

13. 1939 July, “Overseas Railways: Baltic Island Railways”, in Railway Magazine, page 49: ↩

14. 1992, Rudolf M[athias] Schuster, The Hepaticae and Anthocerotae of North America: East of the Hundredth Meridian, volume V, Chicago, Ill.: Field Museum of Natural History, →ISBN, page 5: ↩

15. “protrude, v.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, December 2025; “protrude, v.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022. ↩

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