metastasize
Americanverb (used without object)
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Pathology. (of malignant cells or disease-producing organisms) to spread to other parts of the body by way of the blood or lymphatic vessels or membranous surfaces.
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to spread injuriously.
Street gangs have metastasized in our city.
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to transform, especially into a dangerous form.
The KGB metastasized after the fall of the Soviet Union. Truth metastasized into lurid fantasy.
verb
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pathol (esp of cancer cells) to spread to a new site in the body via blood or lymph vessels
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(of a problem) to deteriorate or spread into new areas
Etymology
Origin of metastasize
First recorded in 1905–10; metastas(is) + -ize
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Although he went into remission, the cancer later returned and metastasized.
From Los Angeles Times
"The good fortune was that it was not very old, and the other thing is that it had not metastasized. It hadn't moved, nothing into bones or anything like that."
From BBC
Investors’ minds inevitably flashed back to 2008, when the implosion of the U.S. mortgage-backed securities market quickly metastasized globally.
From Barron's
Sakaguchi said that he wanted to continue researching how to enhance immune responses in cancer and to potentially prevent cancer cells from spreading and metastasizing.
A bureaucratic error had metastasized into a kind of social sentence.
From Salon
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
