dilate
/dʌɪˈleɪt
/ /dɪˈleɪt/verb
1Make or become wider, larger, or more open: [no object]: her eyes dilated with horror [with object]: the woman dilated her nostrils...
- Laughter appears to cause the tissue that forms the inner lining of blood vessels, the endothelium, to dilate or expand in order to increase blood flow.
- The allergen causes the release of chemicals within the body which act to make the small arterial blood vessels dilate and to leak fluid from the capillaries into the surrounding tissues.
- How well this artery dilates indicates how coronary arteries are behaving.
Synonyms
enlarge, become larger, widen, become wider, expand, distend, swell
2 [no object] (dilate on) Speak or write at length on (a subject): the faithful could hear the minister dilate on the role religion could play...
- She is speaking to us from the security of her living room, safe in her culpable life, dilating on the most hopeless of catastrophes.
- He was one of the first creative people to dilate on this theme philosophically in his novel, first by questioning, ‘Where was the providence of the simple faith?’
- I don't have the space here to, er, dilate on the issue but in my view real women are, alas, a dying breed.
Synonyms
expatiate, expound, expand, enlarge, elaborate, speak at length, write at length, talk in detail
Derivatives
dilatable
/ adjective ...- The prostatic urethra is about 3cm long and is the widest and most dilatable part of the male urethra.
- The term of ‘basic national interests’ is very dilatable and open to interpretation.
- The invention relates to a dilatable balloon implant, which is configured with a limited permeability to liquid.
Origin
Late Middle English: from Old French dilater, from Latin dilatare 'spread out', from di- 'apart' + latus 'wide'.