distend

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   swell from or as if from internal pressure

   The distended bellies of the starving cows.

2. 2
   verb

   cause to expand as it by internal pressure

   The gas distended the animal's body.

3. 3
   verb

   To extend; to stretch out; to spread out.

   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.

Simplified etymology

Distend entered English in the later Middle Ages from Latin distendere, “to swell” or “extend,” formed from dis-, “apart,” and tendere, “to stretch.”

Borrowed from Latin distendō.

Topics

External links

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• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary