Crossword clues for distend
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Distend \Dis*tend"\, v. i.
To become expanded or inflated; to swell. ``His heart
distends with pride.''
--Milton.
Distend \Dis*tend"\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Distended; p. pr. & vb. n. Distending.] [L. distendere, distentum, distensum; dis- + tendere to stretch, stretch out: cf. F. distendre to distend, d['e]tendre to unbend. See Tend, and cf. Detent.]
-
To extend in some one direction; to lengthen out; to stretch. [R.]
But say, what mean those colored streaks in heaven Distended as the brow of God appeased?
--Milton. -
To stretch out or extend in all directions; to dilate; to enlarge, as by elasticity of parts; to inflate so as to produce tension; to cause to swell; as, to distend a bladder, the stomach, etc.
The warmth distends the chinks.
--Dryden.Syn: To dilate; expand; enlarge; swell; inflate.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
Wiktionary
vb. 1 (context intransitive English) To extend or expand, as from internal pressure; to swell 2 (context transitive reflexive archaic English) To extend; to stretch out; to spread out. 3 (context transitive English) To cause to swell. 4 (context biology English) To cause gravidity.
WordNet
v. become wider; "His pupils were dilated" [syn: dilate]
cause to expand as it by internal pressure; "The gas distended the animal's body"
swell from or as if from internal pressure; "The distended bellies of the starving cows"
Usage examples of "distend".
They swooped down like big metal hornets: a nastier breed of botfly, faces bristling with needles and taser nodes, bellies distended with superconducting ground-effectors that could lift a man right off his feet.
Zoe flinched as she felt the man touch the distended lips of her vulva, then she shook her head in objection, sighing then groaning as he pulled experimentally on the tiny weighted chains that dangled from the clamps that were tight around her delicate folds of flesh.
Each year saw more of their silver cockleshells putting out from port, and the cheeks of those who blew the sails more violently distended.
Their crania were doughy and distended, as if their unshaped brains bubbled over.
If the bones be diseased, their articular extremities may be distended and fatty matter deposited in them.
There were round drumlike animals that made jovial booming sounds with their distended blue bellies.
When the colon is distended, it becomes a mechanical impediment to the free circulation of the blood in other organs, and causes congestion of the portal system, predisposing to chronic inflammation or cirrhosis of the liver.
And what terrible disaster had corrupted her riverweed hair and distended her blown cheeks?
The Errin sat with eyes closed for several seconds, gentle breathing and a slight flutter about his distended organ the only motion from her.
A mongrel of whale-shark distended by biothaumaturgy to be cathedral-sized, varicellate shelled, metal pipework thicker than a man in ganglia protuberant like prolapsed veins, boat-sized fins swinging on oiled hinges, a dorsal row of chimneys smoking whitely.
The planet itself seemed to veil its face gradually with distended cirrocumuli, as if in self-defense against the incredibly thin and yet so destructive ray, which jabbed at the remaining shards of ice as they sank into the atmosphere.
The great firebreather was there, her huge head looming above us, jaws open, eyes distended.
Every particle of muscle and fat about their limbs and bodies had apparently wasted away, leaving the skin clinging close to the bone of the face, arms, hands, ribs and thighs--everywhere except the feet and legs, where it was swollen tense and transparent, distended with gallons of purulent matter.
I saw lights gathered like icy fruit on gantries and the undersides of landing pads, the distended belly of the vessel curving up on either side and then we were past.
Her breasts were soft, nipples distended in the last heat from the fire.