distend
Americanverb (used with or without object)
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distends,
present (3rd person singular)
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distended,
past participle, past
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distending
present participle
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
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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.
See Examples For:
Pregnancy is a wonder, even through the finale when a parent pushes their newborns into the world, and those tiny humans distend the most intimate parts of their bodies.
From Salon ● Nov. 9, 2025
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
What might have been a crisp and moody entertainment, in Graham Greene’s elevated sense of that word, distends.
From New York Times ● Jan. 5, 2023
This stimulatory activity is brief, however, because when the intestine distends with chyme, the enterogastric reflex inhibits secretion.
From Textbooks ● Jun. 19, 2013
Within an hour of lunch, the stomach distends to the point where pants need to be unbuttoned, and it remains this way for the rest of the day.
From US News ● Nov. 21, 2012
An analogy often invoked across Afghanistan is that of the water-filled bag: squeeze the bottom, the top distends.
From New York Times ● Feb. 1, 2012
In the depth of the clouds the black tempest distends its cheeks, and the storm arises.
From Toilers of the Sea by Victor Hugo
Yet had Beijing followed through on the financial liberalization envisioned in the WTO agreement, the housing market might not have grown so distended or the balance sheets of local governments so precarious.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 12, 2026
But the groaning synthesizer underneath her bashful smile tells you something is off — a crystalline tone now distended, unnerving.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 21, 2026
To actually feel intoxicated, a chimp would need to eat so much fruit that its stomach would become painfully distended.
From Science Daily ● Dec. 1, 2025
Zar Zar has a distended belly because of a serious abdominal injury.
From BBC ● Apr. 2, 2025
She was misshapen; her belly, tight and heavy and distended, made it impossible for her to stand without supporting herself with her hands.
From "East of Eden" by John Steinbeck
Songs like “No Good Deed” and “March of the Witch Hunters” are chopped up and rearranged to allow for more dialogue and less emoting, distending the film into a bloated heap.
From Salon ● Nov. 21, 2025
I think what we are going for is condensing stage time, while distending mythic time … if that makes ANY sense!
From New York Times ● Nov. 22, 2021
It’s a reminder that our smallness is sometimes petty, the unwelcome gravity of others’ suffering distending her grief.
From Slate ● Jun. 9, 2016
Maintaining vascular tone within the veins prevents the veins from merely distending, dampening the flow of blood, and as you will see, vasoconstriction actually enhances the flow.
From Textbooks ● Jun. 19, 2013
Great distending clouds of chalk and earth and granite spout into the sky.
From "All the Light We Cannot See" by Anthony Doerr
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
