dilate
verb (used with object)
to make wider or larger; cause to expand.
was dilating
-
past progressiveof dilate.past progressive
Used to describe an ongoing action or continuous state that was happening at a specific time in the past.
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.
His vision improved after he cut his caffeine consumption last season when he learned it was dilating his pupils.
From New York Times ● Feb. 21, 2011
Once his host was dilating on the horrors of cannibalism while carving a roast.
From Time Magazine Archive
She was not nourishing alone: the sap of April was dilating the land, sending a quiver through the woods, raising the long herbage which embowered her.
From Fruitfulness by Ernest Alfred Vizetelly
The vicar was dilating on the excellence of marrow jam.
From The Gay Adventure A Romance by Richard Bird
During this same visit, he was dilating upon some question in poetry, when, upon Keats's insinuating a confirmatory suggestion to his argument, Mrs. Wordsworth put her hand upon his arm, saying,—"Mr. Wordsworth is never interrupted."
From The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 07, No. 39, January, 1861 by Various
