Dictionary

distend en · VERB

Pronunciation

• /dɪˈstɛnd/ (UK)
• (Southern-England) audio

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *dwóh₁ ▲ Proto-Indo-European *trísinflu. Proto-Indo-European *d(w)is- Proto-Italic *dis- Latin dis- Proto-Indo-European *ten- Proto-Indo-European *tend- Proto-Indo-European *-eti Proto-Indo-European *téndeti Proto-Italic *tendō Latin tendō Latin distendōbor. English distend Borrowed from Latin distendō.

Meanings

1. (intransitive) To extend or expand, as from internal pressure; to swell
   • 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. 1835, William Gilmore Simms, The Partisan, Harper, Chapter XIV, page 180:
   • I begin to hate the theater, the feeling wickedly distended by histrionics, all the old gestures, clutchings, tears, and applications. 1976 September, Saul Bellow, Humboldt’s Gift, New York, N.Y.: Avon Books, →ISBN, page 147:
2. (archaic, reflexive, transitive) To extend; to stretch out; to spread out.
   • But say, what mean those coloured streaks in heaven / Distended as the brow of God appeased? 1667, John Milton, “Book IX”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:
   • These impure and frail matters are conteined within the angust concave of the Lunar Orb, above which with uninterrupted Series the things Celestial distend themselves. 1661, Thomas Salusbury, System of the World in Four Dialogues, translation of Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems by Galileo Galilei, Dialogue II, page 241:
3. (transitive) To cause to swell.
4. To cause gravidity.

Forms

Deriveds

distender · distensible · distendable · distensive

Translations (24)

es distender (to extend or expand) · hu felfúj (to cause to swell) · cmn 膨脹 /膨胀 (to extend or expand) · pl rozdąć się (to extend or expand) · sv svälla (to extend or expand) · pl rozdymać się (to extend or expand) · pl rozdąć (to cause to swell) · mi kōnakinaki (to extend or expand) · hu felfúvódik (to extend or expand) · mi whakatetere (to cause to swell) · ca distendre (to extend or expand) · cmn 鼓起 (to cause to swell) · bg разширявам (to extend or expand) · bg разтеглям (to extend or expand) · mi koeke (to extend or expand) · fr distendre (to extend or expand) · hu felpuffad (to extend or expand) · hu megduzzad (to extend or expand) · mi koeke (to cause to swell) · sv utöka (to cause to swell) · es destensar (to extend or expand) · pl rozdymać (to cause to swell) · bg раздувам (to cause to swell) · cmn 凸起 (to cause to swell)