distend

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /dɪsˈtɛnd/
• Rhymes: -ɛnd

Verb

distend (third-person singular simple present distends, present participle distending, simple past and past participle distended)

1. (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.

2. (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):

     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.

   • (Can we date this quote by John Milton and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)

     But say, what mean those coloured streaks in heaven / Distended as the brow of God appeased?

3. (transitive) To cause to swell.
4. (biology) To cause gravidity.

Derived terms

• distensible

Translations

To extend or expand

• Bulgarian: разтеглям (bg) (raztegljam), разширявам (bg) (razširjavam)
• Catalan: distendre (ca)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 膨脹／膨胀 (zh) (péngzhàng)

• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• French: distendre (fr)
• Hungarian: felfúvódik (hu), felpuffad
• Maori: kōnakinaki, koeke
• Swedish: svälla (sv)

To cause to swell

• Bulgarian: раздувам (bg) (razduvam)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 鼓起 (zh) (gǔqǐ), 凸起 (zh) (tūqǐ)

• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Hungarian: felfúj (hu)
• Maori: whakatetere, koeke
• Swedish: utöka (sv)

References

• John A. Simpson and Edmund S. C. Weiner, editors (1989), “distend”, in The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition, Oxford: Clarendon Press, →ISBN.

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French

Verb

distend

1. third-person singular present indicative of distendre