Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- intransitive verb To make wider or larger; cause to expand.
- intransitive verb To become wider or larger; expand.
- intransitive verb To speak or write at great length on a subject; expatiate.
from The Century Dictionary.
- Broad; extended.
- To expand; distend; spread out; enlarge or extend in all directions: as, air dilates the lungs; to dilate the pupil of the eye.
- To set forth at length; relate at large; relute or describe with full particulars; enlarge upon.
- Synonyms To swell, spread out, amplify.
- To spread out; expand; distend; swell; enlarge.
- To speak at length; dwell on particulars; enlarge; expatiate; descant: used absolutely or with upon or on.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective obsolete Extensive; expanded.
- transitive verb To expand; to distend; to enlarge or extend in all directions; to swell; -- opposed to
contract - transitive verb rare To enlarge upon; to relate at large; to tell copiously or diffusely.
- intransitive verb To grow wide; to expand; to swell or extend in all directions.
- intransitive verb To speak largely and copiously; to dwell in narration; to enlarge; -- with
on orupon .
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- verb transitive To
enlarge ; to make bigger. - verb intransitive To become wider or larger; to
expand .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- verb become wider
- verb add details, as to an account or idea; clarify the meaning of and discourse in a learned way, usually in writing
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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WORDS ACCENTED ON THE LAST SYLLABLE: address _address'_ adept _adept'_ adult _adult'_ ally _ally'_ commandant _commandänt '(ä as in arm) _ contour _contour'_ dessert _dessert'_ dilate _dilate'_ excise _eksiz'_ finance _finance'_ grimace _grimace'_ importune _importune'_ occult _occult'_ pretence _pretence'_ research _research'_ robust _robust'_ romance _romance'_ tirade _tirade'_
Practical Grammar and Composition Thomas Wood
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While it does not have to dilate as fully as with a full-term birth, the uterus also does not have enough time to process the rapid pace of conception, birth, and loss that occurs in a miscarriage.
Wild Feminine Tami Lynn Kent 2011
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While it does not have to dilate as fully as with a full-term birth, the uterus also does not have enough time to process the rapid pace of conception, birth, and loss that occurs in a miscarriage.
Wild Feminine Tami Lynn Kent 2011
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It's fitting that the name, from the Latin for mirror (the museum is housed in a former observatory), is close etymological kin to speculum, an instrument used, as every woman knows, to dilate the opening of a body cavity for examination.
Boing Boing 2009
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I can almost feel my pupils dilate; my dick gets wood.
Get Laid or Die Trying Jeff Allen 2011
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I can almost feel my pupils dilate; my dick gets wood.
Get Laid or Die Trying Jeff Allen 2011
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The orb seemed to dilate and constrict, making a slight whirring noise as it did so.
Starcraft II: Devils’ Due Christie Golden 2011
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When the body is active, generally in fight or flight mode, the sympathetic system engages, heart rate quickens, pupils dilate and energy is directed towards allowing the body to react quickly.
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It was the early Greek custom to dilate in great detail on everything that had led up to the play, the latter being itself, as a rule merely the catastrophe which had inevitably to ensue on the facts related in the prologue.
Archive 2009-05-01 Hal Duncan 2009
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I never dilate, even with drugs and the nurse cheerfully informed me as I was being wheeled in for my 1st C-Section that I would have been one of those dead-on-the-trail mothers if I was giving birth in a wagon train.
gulyasrobi commented on the word dilate
Daffynition: live long (die-late)
June 16, 2012