Metastasize

Pronunciation

• IPA: /mɪˈtæstÉ™sʌɪz/

Alternative forms

• metastasise

Origin

From metastasis + -ize.

Full definition of metastasize

Verb

1. (medicine, of a disease or tumour) To spread to other sites in the body; to undergo metastasis.
• 1989, Margaret Atwood, Cat's Eye:On other screens are closeups of skin pores, before and after, details of regimes for everything, your hands, your neck, your thighs. Your elbows, especially your elbows: aging begins at the elbows and metastasizes.
• 2001, David Lodge, Thinks...:‘Your lump could be a secondary cancer metastasized from the bowel. I had a patient like that not long ago.’