distend

Valid in Scrabble

Scrabble points
9
Words With Friends
10
Letters
7
Pronunciation
/dɪˈstɛnd/(UK)

Definition of distend

4 senses · 1 part of speech · etymology included

verb

  1. (intransitive)To extend or expand, as from internal pressure; to swell
    “Then came the arrowy flight and form of the hurricane itself—its actual bulk—its imbodied power, pressing along through the forest in a gyratory progress, not fifty yards wide, never distending in width, yet capriciously winding from right to left and left to right.”
    “I begin to hate the theater, the feeling wickedly distended by histrionics, all the old gestures, clutchings, tears, and applications.”
See all 4 definitions

verb

  1. (intransitive)To extend or expand, as from internal pressure; to swell
    “Then came the arrowy flight and form of the hurricane itself—its actual bulk—its imbodied power, pressing along through the forest in a gyratory progress, not fifty yards wide, never distending in width, yet capriciously winding from right to left and left to right.”
    “I begin to hate the theater, the feeling wickedly distended by histrionics, all the old gestures, clutchings, tears, and applications.”
  2. (archaic, reflexive, transitive)To extend; to stretch out; to spread out.
    “These impure and frail matters are conteined within the angust concave of the Lunar Orb, above which with uninterrupted Series the things Celestial distend themselves.”
    “But say, what mean those coloured streaks in heaven / Distended as the brow of God appeased?”
  3. (transitive)To cause to swell.
  4. To cause gravidity.

Definitions from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA.

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin distendō.

Hooks

1 extension · 1 back

A single letter you can add to distend to make another valid word.

Find your best play with distend

See every word you can make from a set of letters that includes distend, or browse word lists you can mine for high-scoring plays.