dilating

Verb (1)

dilate (third-person singular simple present dilates, present participle dilating, simple past and past participle dilated)

1. (transitive) To enlarge; to make bigger.
   • The eye doctor put drops in my eye to dilate the pupil so he could see the nerve better.
2. (intransitive) To become wider or larger; to expand.
   • His heart dilates and glories in his strength.

   Antonyms:

   contract

3. (ambitransitive) To speak largely and copiously; to dwell in narration; to enlarge; with "on" or "upon".
   • Do me the favour to dilate at full / What hath befallen of them and thee till now.c. 1594 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Comedie of Errors”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount...
4. (ambitransitive) To use a dilator to widen (something, such as a vagina).
   • An experimenter in New York has recently advocated what he is pleased to call temporary forcible dilatation of the trachea in the treatment of membranous croup, his idea being to introduce into the trachea a dilator and to forcibly dilate, every few hours if need be, and he reports favorable...1896, “Society Proceedings”, in The Chicago Medical Recorder, volume 10, page 62

Verb (2)

dilate (third-person singular simple present dilates, present participle dilating, simple past and past participle dilated)

1. (obsolete, transitive) To delay, defer.
   • Without more time delated.1556, John Heywood, The Spider and the Fly, lii. 19
2. (obsolete, transitive) To prolong, lengthen.
   • A […] way to dilate a remembrance beyond the banks of Forgetfulness.1658, Francis Osborne, Advice to a Son

See all 7 meanings of dilate