Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To make wider or larger; cause to expand.
- v. To become wider or larger; expand.
- v. To speak or write at great length on a subject; expatiate.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To expand; distend; spread out; enlarge or extend in all directions: as, air dilates the lungs; to dilate the pupil of the eye.
- To set forth at length; relate at large; relute or describe with full particulars; enlarge upon.
- Synonyms To swell, spread out, amplify.
- To spread out; expand; distend; swell; enlarge.
- To speak at length; dwell on particulars; enlarge; expatiate; descant: used absolutely or with upon or on.
- Broad; extended.
Wiktionary
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. To expand; to distend; to enlarge or extend in all directions; to swell; -- opposed to
contract - v. rare To enlarge upon; to relate at large; to tell copiously or diffusely.
- v. To grow wide; to expand; to swell or extend in all directions.
- v. To speak largely and copiously; to dwell in narration; to enlarge; -- with
on orupon . - adj. obsolete Extensive; expanded.
WordNet 3.0
- v. become wider
- v. add details, as to an account or idea; clarify the meaning of and discourse in a learned way, usually in writing
Etymologies
- From Old (and modern) French dilater, from Latin dilatare ‘spread out’, from di- + latus ‘wide’. (Wiktionary)
- Middle English dilaten, from Old French dilater, from Latin dīlātāre, to enlarge : dī-, dis-, apart; see dis- + lātus, wide. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“WORDS ACCENTED ON THE LAST SYLLABLE: address _address'_ adept _adept'_ adult _adult'_ ally _ally'_ commandant _commandänt '(ä as in arm) _ contour _contour'_ dessert _dessert'_ dilate _dilate'_ excise _eksiz'_ finance _finance'_ grimace _grimace'_ importune _importune'_ occult _occult'_ pretence _pretence'_ research _research'_ robust _robust'_ romance _romance'_ tirade _tirade'_”
“The orb seemed to dilate and constrict, making a slight whirring noise as it did so.”
“It was the early Greek custom to dilate in great detail on everything that had led up to the play, the latter being itself, as a rule merely the catastrophe which had inevitably to ensue on the facts related in the prologue.”
“When the body is active, generally in fight or flight mode, the sympathetic system engages, heart rate quickens, pupils dilate and energy is directed towards allowing the body to react quickly.”
The Huffington Post: 5 Scientific Reasons Why Breakups Are Devastating
“I never dilate, even with drugs and the nurse cheerfully informed me as I was being wheeled in for my 1st C-Section that I would have been one of those dead-on-the-trail mothers if I was giving birth in a wagon train.”
“I can almost feel my pupils dilate; my dick gets wood.”
“While it does not have to dilate as fully as with a full-term birth, the uterus also does not have enough time to process the rapid pace of conception, birth, and loss that occurs in a miscarriage.”
“It's fitting that the name, from the Latin for mirror (the museum is housed in a former observatory), is close etymological kin to speculum, an instrument used, as every woman knows, to dilate the opening of a body cavity for examination.”
“How I, then a young girl, came to think of, and to dilate upon, so very hideous an idea?”
“Similarly, dilateBrick (w, h) performs a morphological dilate using a wxh structuring element, all hits, and center at w/2, h/2.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘dilate’.
-
GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4087 more...
-
GRE 2014
abase, abate, abdicate, aberrant, abeyance, abhor, abjure, abortive, abound, abrasive, abreast, abridge and 1577 more...
-
WF - daffynitions
A daffynition (derived from daffy and definition) is a pun format involving the reinterpretation of an existing word, on the basis that it sounds like another word (or group of words).
Sourc...apéritif, avoidable, buccaneer, dandelion, decadent, devastation, dilate, fortunate, impolite, indistinct, information, innuendoes and 10 more...
-
Words for financial performance
Business and financial journalists tend to use the same tired few words to describe what happens to economies, markets and prices. Enough of grow, soar, boom, crash, bust, collapse and so on. Let's...
swell, inflate, dilate, mount, accrue, magnify, amplify, blossom, fatten up, dwindle, dissipate, shrivel and 31 more...
-
man gre
abase, abeyance, abreast, abscission, abscond, abyss, accede, accretion, acerbic, acidulous, acumen, adulterate and 483 more...
-
big book gre
abase, abbess, abbey, abbot, abdicate, abdomen, abdominal, abduction, abed, aberration, abet, abeyance and 6691 more...
-
gre2
aberrant, aberration, aboveboard, abrasive, abstemious, acme, admonish, affable, affluent, alacrity, allegory, alleviate and 1896 more...
-
GRE list #2
FOM - cards - 1/2
abjure, abscond, abstemious, accretion, acidulous, acme, adulterate, aerie, affected, aggrandize, alacrity, mitigate and 221 more...
-
spread out, spacious words of spe
words pertaining to the root spe- (hope) with some allegorical liberties.
paten, pan, pass, patent, petal, expand, repand, passacaglia, passe, paseo, paella, spawn and 150 more...
-
Aequoria's list
affect, deleterious, nuance, pliant, verbatim, pertinent, latter, municipality, provincial, voyeuristic, circumlocution, wane and 798 more...
-
ADW1
obdurate, obstinate, behest, injunction, enjoin, circumspect, ensconce, discursive, lugubrious, doleful, somber, ken and 2476 more...
-
whitmanian
from the poetry and prose of walt whitman
celebrate, assume, loafe, grass, summer, distillation, atmosphere, undisguised, naked, mad, breath, loveroot and 291 more...
-
Misc. Words.
Words I like to use, words I like but may forget.
corrosion, astonish, solace, ferment, continuum, kinesthetic, permeate, repose, caprice, cardinal, discourse, surrender and 610 more...
-
play words
words for a play
pert, vicissitude, melancholy, vexation, gaud, attestation, renunciation, wax, wrought, sunder, antipodes, reckoning and 236 more...
-
Adoration
Words I kind of love. For not particular reason, I just do.
-
School Words
hagiography, antediluvian, rakish, impeccable, hackneyed, irascible, nascent, teetotaller, suffragette, amiable, expiate, turbulent and 110 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for dilate.
gulyasrobi Daffynition: live long (die-late) Jun 15, 2012