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Capable of being distended or dilated.

To increase the capacity of; to expand; to give free scope or greater scope to; also, to dilate, as with joy, affection, and the like; as, knowledge enlarges the mind. O ye Corinthians, our . . . heart is enlarged. 2 Cor. vi. 11.

Capable of being erected; susceptible of being erected of dilated. Erectile tissue (Anat.), a tissue which is capable of being greatly dilated and made rigid by the distension of the numerous blood vessels which it contains.

art, thus increasing bulk without addition of substance; to make to occupy more space; to dilate; to distend; to extend every way; to enlarge; -- opposed to Ant: contract; as, to expand the chest; heat expands all bodies; to expand the sphere of benevolence.

Having a capacity or tendency to expand or dilate; diffusive; of much expanse; wide-extending; as, the expansive force of heat; the expansive quality of air. A more expansive and generous compassion. Eustace. His forehead was broad and expansive. Prescott. -- Ex*pan"sive*ly, adv. -Ex*pan"sive*ness, n.…

To press and dilate, as a sail; as, the wind filled the sails.

rid language; to indulge in rhetorical figures and lofty expressions; to be flowery. They dilate . . . and flourish long on little incidents. J. Watts.

A species of blindness in horses in which the eye is bright and the pupil dilated; a sort of amaurosis. Youatt.

To become large; to dilate. [R.] My blue eyes greatening in the looking-glass. Mrs. Browning.

A dilated base or receptacle, supporting a multilocular ovary.

vy sea, as ships on the billows, as the earth when broken up by frost, etc.; to swell; to dilate; to expand; to distend; hence, to labor; to struggle. Frequent for breath his panting bosom heaves. Prior. The heaving plain of ocean. Byron.

Any species of Old World geckoes of the genus Hemidactylus. The hemidactyls have dilated toes, with two rows of plates beneath.

To swell or distend with air or gas; to dilate; to expand; to enlarge; as, to inflate a bladder; to inflate the lungs. When passion's tumults in the bosom rise, Inflate the features, and enrage the eyes. J. Scott of Amwell.

A funnel-shaped or dilated organ or part; as, the infundibulum of the brain, a hollow, conical process, connecting the floor of the third ventricle with the pituitary body; the infundibula of the lungs, the enlarged terminations of the bronchial tubes.

- usually applied to vascular tumors, i. e., those consisting mainly of blood vessels, as dilated arteries, veins, or capillaries.

A petiole dilated into the form of a blade, and usually with vertical edges, as in the Australian acacias.

A variety of the domestic pigeon remarkable for the extent to which it is able to dilate its throat and breast.

To swell with air; to be dilated or inflated. Boyle.

The dilated apex of a pedicel which serves as a common support to a head of flowers.

Uropeltidæ, native of Ceylon and Southern Asia. They have a small mouth which can not be dilated.