Distend

Pronunciation

• UK IPA: /dɪsˈtÉ›nd/
• Rhymes: -É›nd

Origin

- + tend

Full definition of distend

Verb

1. (intransitive) To extend or expand, as from internal pressure; to swell
• 1835, w, s:The Partisan, 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.
• MiltonBut 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