Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To swell out or expand from or as if from internal pressure.
- v. To cause to expand by or as if by internal pressure; dilate.
- v. To extend.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To stretch or spread in all directions; dilate; expand; swell out; enlarge: as, to distend a bladder; to distend the lungs.
- To stretch in any direction; extend.
- To widen; spread apart.
- To become distended; swell.
Wiktionary
- v. intransitive To extend or expand, as from internal pressure; to swell
- v. transitive, reflexive, archaic To extend; to stretch out; to spread out.
- v. transitive To cause to swell.
- v. biology To cause gravidity.
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. rare To extend in some one direction; to lengthen out; to stretch.
- v. 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
- v. To become expanded or inflated; to swell.
WordNet 3.0
- v. become wider
- v. cause to expand as it by internal pressure
- v. swell from or as if from internal pressure
Etymologies
- Middle English distenden, from Latin distendere : dis-, dis- + tendere, to stretch; see ten- in Indo-European roots. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“The history of the word "distend" stretches back to the Latin verb "tendere”
“When my moose-meat spluttered rowdily in the frying-pan, I noticed old Ebbits's nostrils twitch and distend as he caught the food-scent.”
“The Aspen Ideas Festival is underway at the Aspen Institute and that means the average Joe and Jane Soave Bolla can gorge on the newer new thing until their stomachs distend into the 21st Century.”
The Huffington Post: Michael Conniff: Con Games: If I Only Had A Brain At Aspen Ideas Fest
“Her nostrils distend with the memory of cherished scents.”
“In an age when the Air Force budget looks to increase only marginally, if at all, while simultaneously planning to buy several other major aircraft (new aerial tankers, new transports, new heavy bombers, and new helicopters), this plan to distend the fighter-bomber budget is a fool's errand.”
Winslow T. Wheeler: What Now, Icarus? Is Western Combat Aviation Falling Out of the Sky?
“It is a mistake to think that that little room has elastic walls and can distend to any extent.”
“In a new study awaiting publication, Dr. Leung reports that pumping in water instead of air to distend the colon is more comfortable for patients, resulting in a success rate of 97%.”
“During the procedure, air is pumped into the colon to distend it and make it easier for the gastroenterologist to see.”
“Shagram stare with his eyes, distend his nostrils, and tremble with terror, hinted that “he surely saw more than they could see.””
“Dr. Paul E. Greene called the uncontrollable movements developed by some patients as “absolutely devastating. †He said, “They chew constantly, their fingers go up and down, their writs flex and distend.”
Think Progress » Brownback Holds Up Drawing Of Embryo, Asks ‘Are You Going To Kill Me?’
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘distend’.
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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...
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Test Prep or Just for fun
Building a list for standardized test prep or just for learning some new words! Please add any words that you feel are important for the SAT/GRE/GMAT etc...
throng, morass, parley, facile, kismet, strife, jetsam, carrion, annex, harbinger, vestige, surreptitious and 575 more...
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GRE Barron's 800
abate, abdicate, aberrant, abeyance, abject, abjure, abscission, abscond, abstemious, abstinence, abysmal, accretion and 787 more...
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GRE 2014
abase, abate, abdicate, aberrant, abeyance, abhor, abjure, abortive, abound, abrasive, abreast, abridge and 1577 more...
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Steampunk
Words used quite often in steampunk
ansible, airship, chymical, valve, clockwork, dirigible, thaumaturgy, copper, bronze, difference engine, gear, rivets and 521 more...
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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...
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SAT words
abase, abate, abet, abject, abjure, abrogate, abscond, abstruse, accolade, accommodating, accost, accretion and 202 more...
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Words I Know
List of most of the words I've learned
garner, abase, abate, abdicate, abduct, aberration, abet, abhor, abide, abject, abjure, abnegation and 1046 more...
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quality words
This is a mix of new words I've read studying for the GRE verbal and words I use normally. I also check back on these words if I don't use them often enough.
ineffable, septuagenarian, sesquipedalian, argyle, coalescence, profundity, vivisepulture, defenestrate, concatenate, usurp, diatribe, veracious and 461 more...
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GRE list #2
FOM - cards - 1/2
abjure, abscond, abstemious, accretion, acidulous, acme, adulterate, aerie, affected, aggrandize, alacrity, mitigate and 221 more...
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ADW1
obdurate, obstinate, behest, injunction, enjoin, circumspect, ensconce, discursive, lugubrious, doleful, somber, ken and 2476 more...
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Vocab++
Words as I learn them.
fetid, mezzanine, hiatus, austerity, subliminal, resplendent, implacable, impugn, debase, exiguous, cirque, holster and 2538 more...
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Oh them words, them words
My fancies, my cudgels.
liquescent, ferly, lamia, basilisk, trigon, fantast, stirp, tristesse, enfleurage, stemma, formicary, lacrimation and 346 more...
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man gre
abase, abeyance, abreast, abscission, abscond, abyss, accede, accretion, acerbic, acidulous, acumen, adulterate and 483 more...
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SAT Words Appearing More Than Once on...
A list of 166 words that have appeared more than once on official SAT exams. Based on Gruber's SAT Word Master list.
abolish, abridge, abstemious, accent, accented, accolade, acquiesce, affirmation, amass, ambivalence, ambivalent, ambulatory and 154 more...
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random
words I read but don't know
nascent, proxy, desultory, charlatan, churlish, emaciated, gaudy, shill, lurid, frisson, marauding, plunder and 610 more...
Tweets
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