/ English Dictionary

DISTEND

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Swell from or as if from internal pressure

Example:

The distended bellies of the starving cows

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Hypernyms (to "distend" is one way to...):

intumesce; swell; swell up; tumefy; tumesce (expand abnormally)

Verb group:

distend (cause to expand as it by internal pressure)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s

Sentence example:

Did his feet distend?

Derivation:

distension (the act of expanding by pressure from within)

distension (the state of being stretched beyond normal dimensions)

distention (the act of expanding by pressure from within)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Cause to expand as it by internal pressure

Example:

The gas distended the animal's body

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Hypernyms (to "distend" is one way to...):

bloat (make bloated or swollen)

Verb group:

distend (swell from or as if from internal pressure)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s something

Derivation:

distention (the act of expanding by pressure from within)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Become wider

Example:

His pupils were dilated

Synonyms:

dilate; distend

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Hypernyms (to "distend" is one way to...):

widen (become broader or wider or more extensive)

Sentence frames:

Something ----s
Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something

Derivation:

distensible (capable of being distended; able to stretch and expand)

distension (the act of expanding by pressure from within)

distension (the state of being stretched beyond normal dimensions)

distention (the act of expanding by pressure from within)

Credits

 Context examples: 

Breast adenosis characterized by the presence of ducts with distended lumen and columnar cell metaplasia.

(Breast Blunt Duct Adenosis, NCI Thesaurus)

Serous gland with distended lumen.

(Accessory Lacrimal Gland, NCI Thesaurus)

To a man of philosophic temperament like myself the blood-tick, with its lancet-like proboscis and its distending stomach, is as beautiful a work of Nature as the peacock or, for that matter, the aurora borealis.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

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