distend

distend (dɪˈstɛnd)

—vb
1.	to expand or be expanded by or as if by pressure from within; swell; inflate
2.	(tr) to stretch out or extend
3.	(tr) to magnify in importance; exaggerate

[C14: from Latin distendere, from dis-¹ + tendere to stretch]

dis'tender

—n

dis'tensible

—*adj*

distensi'bility

—n

dis'tension

—n

dis'tention

—n

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Etymonline

Word Origin & History

distend

c.1400, from L. distendere "to swell or stretch out, extend," from dis- "apart" + tendere "to stretch" (see tenet). Related: Distended.

American Heritage

Medical Dictionary

distend di·stend (dĭ-stěnd')
v. dis·tend·ed, dis·tend·ing, dis·tends
To swell out or expand or cause to swell out or expand from or as if from internal pressure.

Example sentences

Fluid is inserted into the joint to distend it and to allow for visualization of the structures within that joint.

One day the sun will distend into a red giant before it shrinks into a white dwarf.

To make it easier to see and manipulate tissues, a salt solution is injected into the joint to distend it.

Barium sulfate is used to distend the hollow digestive organs so they can be seen in the images produced by the scan.

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distensible fill inflate puff stretch

Matching Quote

"The ocean is but a larger lake. At midsummer you may sometimes see a strip of glassy smoothness on it, a few rods in width and many miles long, as if the surface were covered with a thin pellicle of oil, just as on a country pond.... Yet this same placid ocean, as civil now as a city's harbor, a place for ships and commerce, will ere long be lashed into sudden fury, and all its caves and cliffs will resound with tumult. It will ruthlessly heave these vessels to and fro, break them in pieces in its sandy or stony jaws, and deliver their crews to sea-monsters. It will play with them like seaweed, distend them like dead frogs, and carry them about, now high, now low, to show to the fishes, giving them a nibble. This gentle ocean will toss and tear the rag of a man's body like the father of mad bulls, and his relatives may be seen seeking the remnants for weeks along the strand. From some quiet inland hamlet they have rushed weeping to the unheard-of shore, and now stand uncertain where a sailor has recently been buried amid the sand-hills."

-Henry David Thoreau