expansions

Noun

expansion (countable and uncountable, plural expansions)

1. An act, process, or instance of expanding.
   • The expansion of metals and plastics in response to heat is well understood.
   1. The fractional change in unit length per unit length per unit temperature change.
      • Look up the expansion of 1018 steel at stick welding temps and figure out how far this thing's gonna bend once we weld it up.
   2. (building) A new addition.
      • My new office is in the expansion behind the main building.
   3. A product to be used with a previous product.
      • This expansion requires the original game board.
   4. That which is expanded; expanse; extended surface.
      • Mother of mighty Rome's imperial line, / Delight of man, and of the powers divine, / Venus, all-bounteous queen! whose genial power / Diffuses beauty in unbounded store / Through seas, and fertile plains, and all that lies / Beneath the starred expansion of the skies.a. 1804, James Beattie, “The Beginning of the First Book of Lucretius”, in The Poetical Works of James Beattie (The Aldine Edition of the British Poets), London: Bell and Daldy […], published 1866...
   5. (steam engines) The operation of steam in a cylinder after its communication with the boiler has been cut off, by which it continues to exert pressure upon the moving piston.

See all 11 meanings of expansion