distend
Americanverb (used with or without object)
verb
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to expand or be expanded by or as if by pressure from within; swell; inflate
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(tr) to stretch out or extend
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(tr) to magnify in importance; exaggerate
Synonym Usage
See expand.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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distendernoun
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distensibilitynoun
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distensionnoun
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overdistendverb
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undistendverb (used with object)
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distensibleadjective
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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distendsimple
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distendssimple
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have distendedperfect
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has distendedperfect
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am distendingprogressive
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are distendingprogressive
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is distendingprogressive
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have been distendingperfect progressive
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has been distendingperfect progressive
Past
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distendedsimple
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had distendedperfect
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was distendingprogressive
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were distendingprogressive
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had been distendingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of distend
First recorded in 1375–1425; late Middle English distenden (from Anglo-French destendre ), from Latin distendere, equivalent to dis- dis- 1 + tendere “to stretch”
Explanation
A soda and pizza binge might make your stomach distend, meaning your stomach will swell as a result of pressure from the inside. If you’ve ever eaten too much food it won’t surprise you to learn that the verb distend traces back to the Latin words dis-, meaning “apart,” and tendere, meaning “to stretch.” Your stomach will certainly feel stretched out if you do something — like overeat — that causes it to distend. The word distend often applies to stomachs — a pregnancy would also cause a stomach to distend — but it can also refer to anything that is stretched out as a result of internal pressure.
Vocabulary lists containing distend
The Vocabulary.com Top 1000
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100 SAT Words Beginning with "D"
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"Once Upon a Time," Vocabulary from the short story
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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.
Instead, random bits of the Peep chick — its flat base, the curved neck, the tail — distend until they look like bubbles about to burst.
From Salon • Feb. 2, 2023
Its body seemed to distend, its muscles to melt.
From The New Yorker • Feb. 11, 2019
Like dispatches from another dimension, Katz’s drawings distend the ordinary geometry of the comics page, much as desire contorts the imagination.
From Slate • Mar. 30, 2018
Does the league really want to so distend its compensation scale for any commissioner, much less this one?
From Washington Post • Nov. 14, 2017
The face of Etienne’s watch appears to distend.
From "All the Light We Cannot See" by Anthony Doerr
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.
