Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • intransitive verb To speak or write at length.
  • intransitive verb To wander freely.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To move at large; rove without prescribed limits; wander without restraint.
  • To enlarge in discourse or writing; be copious in argument or discussion: with on or upon.
  • To allow to range at large; give free exercise to; expand; broaden.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb To expand; to spread; to extend; to diffuse; to broaden.
  • intransitive verb To range at large, or without restraint.
  • intransitive verb To enlarge in discourse or writing; to be copious in argument or discussion; to descant.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb To range at large, or without restraint.
  • verb To write or speak at length; to be copious in argument or discussion, to descant.
  • verb obsolete To expand; to spread; to extend; to diffuse; to broaden.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • 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

[Latin expatiārī, expatiāt- : ex-, ex- + spatiārī, to spread (from spatium, space).]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From the participle stem of Latin expatiari, from ex- + spatiari ("walk about").

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