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nd; to enlarge or extend in all directions; to swell; -- opposed to contract; as, the air dilates the lungs; air is dilated by increase of heat.

Expanded; enlarged. Shak.

In a dilated manner. Feltham.

One who, or that which, dilates, expands, o r enlarges.

Partially dilated.

To speak largely or copiously; to be diffuse in argument or description; to dilate; to expatiate; -- often with on or upon. Watts. He must often enlarge and amplify upon the subject he handles. South.

Any membranous bag shaped like a leathern bottle, as the dilated end of a vessel or duct; especially the dilations of the semicircular canals of the ear.

Flask-shaped; dilated.

A tumor composed chiefly of dilated blood vessels.

The Cynara scolymus, a plant somewhat resembling a thistle, with a dilated, imbricated, and prickly involucre. The head (to which the name is also applied) is composed of numerous oval scales, inclosing the florets, sitting on a broad receptacle, which, with the fleshy base of the scales, is much esteemed as an article…

Varicose. Cirsoid aneurism, a disease of an artery in which it becomes dilated and elongated, like a varicose vein.

o a smaller compass; to consolidate; to abridge; to epitomize. In what shape they choose, Dilated or condensed, bright or obscure. Milton. The secret course pursued at Brussels and at Madrid may be condensed into the usual formula, dissimulation, procrastination, and again dissimulation. Motley.

to study. To love, at least contemplate and admire, What I see excellent. Milton. We thus dilate Our spirits to the size of that they contemplate. Byron.

To dilate. [Obs.] Goodwin.

Capable of expansion; that may be dilated; -- opposed to contractible; as, the lungs are dilatable by the force of air; air is dilatable by heat.

A muscle which dilates any part; a dilator.

The act of dilating, or the state of being dilated; expansion; dilatation. Mrs. Browning. At first her eye with slow dilation rolled. Tennyson. A gigantic dilation of the hateful figure. Dickens.

Causing dilation; tending to dilate, on enlarge; expansive. Coleridge.

A muscle that dilates any part.

To stretch out or extend in all directions; to dilate; to enlarge, as by elasticity of parts; to inflate so as to produce tension; to cause to swell; as, to distend a bladder, the stomach, etc. The warmth distends the chinks. Dryden.