Definify.com
Webster 1913 Edition
Distend
Dis-tend′
,Verb.
T.
[
imp. & p. p.
Distended
; p. pr. & vb. n.
Distending
.] 1.
To extend in some one direction; to lengthen out; to stretch.
[R.]
But say, what mean those colored streaks in heaven
Distended
as the brow of God appeased? Milton.
2.
To stretch out or extend in all directions; to dilate; to enlarge, as by elasticity of parts; to inflate so as to produce tension; to cause to swell;
as, to
distend
a bladder, the stomach, etc.
Syn. – To dilate; expand; enlarge; swell; inflate.
Dis-tend′
,Verb.
I.
To become expanded or inflated; to swell.
“His heart distends with pride.” Milton.
Webster 1828 Edition
Distend
DISTEND
,Verb.
T.
1.
To stretch or spread in all directions; to dilate; to enlarge; to expand; to swell; as, to distend a bladder; to distend the bowels to distend the lungs. [This is the appropriate sense of the word.]2.
To spread apart; to divaricate; as, to distend the legs. We seldom say, to distend a plate of metal, and never, I believe, to distend a line; extend being used in both cases. We use distend chiefly to denote the stretching, spreading or expansion of any thing, by means of a substance inclosed within it, or by the elastic force of something inclosed. In this case the body distended swells or spreads in all directions, and usually in a spherical form. A bladder is distended by inflation, or by the expansion of rarefied air within it. The skin is distended in boils and abscesses, by matter generated within them. This appropriation of the word has not always been observed.Definition 2024
distend
distend
English
Verb
distend (third-person singular simple present distends, present participle distending, simple past and past participle distended)
- (intransitive) To extend or expand, as from internal pressure; to swell
- 1835, William Gilmore Simms, The Partisan, Harper, Chapter XIV, page 180:
- Then came the arrowy flight and form of the hurricane itself—its actual bulk—its imbodied power, pressing along through the forest in a gyratory progress, not fifty yards wide, never distending in width, yet capriciously winding from right to left and left to right.
-
- (transitive, reflexive, archaic) To extend; to stretch out; to spread out.
- 1662 Thomas Salusbury, Galileo's Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems (Dialogue 2):
- Milton
- But say, what mean those coloured streaks in heaven / Distended as the brow of God appeased?
- (transitive) To cause to swell.
- (biology) To cause gravidity.
Translations
To extend or expand
To cause to swell
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Derived terms
References
- J[ohn] A. Simpson and E[dward] S. C. Weiner, editors (1989) The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition, Oxford: Clarendon Press, ISBN 978-0-19-861186-8.