dilatant
Americanadjective
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dilating; expanding.
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Physical Chemistry. exhibiting an increase in volume on being changed in shape, owing to a wider spacing between particles.
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Petrology. (of rock) exhibiting an increase in volume owing to rearrangement and recrystallization of constituent grains.
adjective
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tending to dilate; dilating
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physics of, concerned with, or exhibiting dilatancy
noun
"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012Other Word Forms
- dilatancy noun
Etymology
Origin of dilatant
1835–45; < Latin dīlātant- (stem of dīlātāns ), present participle of dīlātāre to dilate; -ant
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.
Over the weekend, a writer at the Dilatant Pharma blog reminded us that three drugs have already been approved in the U.S. without clinical trials for the indication, and that they anticipate ZMapp could be investigated under this special provision.
From Forbes
Among the projects that will make the trip on Sunday is one from middle school students in Santa Monica, Calif., who want to know whether Silly Putty — a non-Newtonian dilatant fluid, in scientific terms — will have different properties in the weightlessness of space than it has on Earth.
From New York Times
He became interested in dilatant materials, whose unique flowing and locking molecular bond was discovered in the '50s.
From Time Magazine Archive
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.
