1715 tr. D. Gregory Elements Astron. II. iv. xii. 662 There are some universal Deviations or Differences from a Spherical Figure..; as for Example, the prolate Spheroidical Figure [L. illa in sphaeroidem prolatam], which has been..shewn to belong to all fluid Bodies turning round their own Axes.

1908 H. G. Wells War in Air iii. §3 A few stars now had pierced the blue, and in the east there shone brightly a prolate moon.

1941 Physical Rev. 59 439/2 The charge distribution is prolate with respect to the direction of the deuteron spin.

2005 Times Educ. Suppl. (Nexis) 4 Nov. 19 There is an intriguing algorithm for naming the day of the week for any date and for ascertaining the volume of a prolate ellipsoid (or rugby ball).

1846 J. D. Dana U.S. Exploring Exped.: Zoophytes iv. 75 By the prolate mode of growth, the polyps gradually extend outward, and new buds open, from time to time, a short distance from the edge.

1882 R. G. Wilberforce Life S. Wilberforce III. i. 3 That we had no means of repressing prolate heresy.

1914 A. H. F. Strangways Music of Hindostan viii. 200 Secular music similarly starts from a long..and a short..note, and adds on one side the prolate note (pluta) and on the other the quick note.

1996 P. Olivelle Upaniṣads 357 (note) Three lengths [of vowel] are recognized: the short, the long (two units), and the prolate (three units).

1834 Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 124 314 As the revolution of the paddle resembles a circle rolling on a plane, every part of it will describe a cycloid. That point whose velocity is equal to that of the vessel will move through a simple cycloid, points within that circle in prolate cycloids, [etc.].

1877 Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 167 280 The motion of the instantaneous axis in the earth is a prolate cycloid.

1950 Osiris 163 9 While a point..on the circumference of the larger circle describes a cycloid, a point..on the cirumference of the smaller (and, in fact, any point within the larger circle) describes the curve known as a prolate cycloid.

1991 D. Wells Penguin Dict. Curious & Interesting Geom. 45 When the wheel of a train rolls along a rail, a point on its circumference traces a prolate cycloid which contains loops.

1724 Philos. Trans. 1722–3 (Royal Soc.) 33 121 His Compression of a Shell of Earth into a prolate Spheroide.

1760 T. Birch Hist. Royal Soc. IV. 523 Mr Hooke read a further discourse concerning the probability of the hypothesis, that the earth is of the figure of a prolate spheroid.

1867 E. B. Denison Astron. without Math. (ed. 3) 7 Drawn out at the poles, like an egg with two small ends, which is called a prolate spheroid.

1970 Nature 17 Oct. 254/2 The prolate spheroids and dumbbells often have zonation patterns.

1768 Philos. Trans. 1767 (Royal Soc.) 57 38 The prolateness of his figure.

1882 Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 173 201 The stresses caused by oblateness or prolateness of the spheroid.

1980 Proc. National Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 77 3079/1 (caption) Note the oblateness of the 0.3 isobaric surface and the prolateness of the 0.7 isobaric surface.

1542 T. Becon Newe Pathway vnto Praier xxxiii. sig. Oij The wordes of S. Iohn Chrisostome, which..condemne the vnfruytefull bablynge & vayne ianglynge of wordes vaynly & causles prolated.

1601 J. Deacon & J. Walker Summarie Answere to Darel 63 [A] bare commanding word, prolated and vttered abroad in the ayre with a vanishing sound.

1631 B. Jonson New Inne iii. i. 166 Peck. I wish he may be found'red. Fly. Foun-de-red. Prolate it right.

1640 J. Howell Δενδρολογια 12 The other delights in long breathed accents, which he prolates with such pauses, that before he be at a period of his sentence, one may reach a second thought.

1779 J. S. Smith Coll. Eng. Songs Pref. p. v A Tenor or low Voice is prolating the Ground or plain Song.

1796 J. B. Gilchrist Gram. Hindoostanee Lang. i. 34 He can also apply what is observed here to several other letters..by prolating them like our d in dull, and gh in ghost.

1808 J. Moser Don Quixote in Barcelona i. iv Many people..prolate words which create no admiration at all.

1885 M. Monier-Williams Relig. Thought India (ed. 2) xx. 529 He prefaced his speech by repeating a hymn to Varuna..preceded by the syllable Om..prolating the vowel in deep sonorous tones.

1959 Bull. School Oriental & Afr. Stud. 22 515 Slight traces of tonal difference remained. This was particularly at the final of a half-verse..which, in the third repetition of the first verse, was prolated.

2002 Asian Week (Nexis) 4 Sept. 22 San Francisco native Tony Robles' series of odes..found resonance, especially when prolated in Robles' perfect, dry pitch.

1727 J. Alexander Primitive Doctr. Christ's Divinity iii. 36 The Father of all..ought not to be number'd with the other Æons: He that was not prolated, and self-existent, with those that were prolated, and begotten in time.

1873 A. Lamson Church of First Three Cent. 301 The Son..had a sort of metaphysical existence in the Father..but was either a little before the creation of the world, or, without reference to time, thrown out, or prolated, as it was expressed, and so became..a real being.

1889 J. Kaye tr. Justin Martyr First Apol. ii. 43 And this Product being truly prolated by the Father was one with the Father before all created things.