Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use dilate in a sentence

13 example sentences · verb, adjective

Dilate means to enlarge; to make bigger. Example: “The eye doctor put drops in my eye to dilate the pupil so he could see the nerve better.”

Examples of dilate by meaning

verbTo enlarge; to make bigger.

  • The eye doctor put drops in my eye to dilate the pupil so he could see the nerve better.

verbTo become wider or larger; to expand.

  • His heart dilates and glories in his strength.

verbTo use a dilator to widen (something, such as a vagina).

  • In very tight and obstinate stricture I sometimes dilate every day, but as soon as it has been stretched up to 23 or 24, I dilate every other day, or at greater intervals, keeping the instrument in place several minutes.1911, Abraham Wolbarst, Gonorrhea in the Male: A Practical Guide to Its Treatment, page 148
  • He gave her some of the dilators he used to dilate her vagina shortly after the surgery and encouraged her to do it frequently.2010, Kehinde Adeola Ayeni, Feasts of Phantoms, Fisher King Press, →ISBN, page 148

More sentences with dilate

  • The traditional method of dilating an esophageal stricture is by bouginage.2009, D.H. Parikh, David Crabbe, Alex Auldist, Pediatric Thoracic Surgery, page 318. From the entry bouginage
  • (b) Mydriatrics are those which dilate the pupil e.g., atropine and adrenaline.1991, Principles & Practice of Nursing, Academic Publishers, published 2008, →ISBN, page 338. From the entry mydriatric
  • The author could dilate at great length on the possibilities in plant groceries, restaurants, and dentistries.1918, Edward Bernard Benjamin, The larger liberalism, page 172. From the entry dentistry
  • Greengrey dilates on the curtains that are going a-begging at Maple's.1902 January 15, The Sketch, volume XXXVI, London: Illustrated London News & Sketch, →OCLC, page 513. From the entry pet shop
  • Except when it dilates and spaghettificates or panificates.2019 December 9, Ehren Bates, “IF space changes in size or contracts...”, in sci.physics.relativity (Usenet), archived from the original…. From the entry panificate
  • Buteyko believed that teaching people with asthma to underbreathe could raise their carbon dioxide levels and dilate their airways without medication.2014, Sarah Brewer, Overcoming Asthma: The Complete Complementary Health Program, →ISBN. From the entry underbreathe
  • To hasten labor a Champetier de Ribes dilating bag was inserted but failed to have the desired effect.1918 Franklin H. Martin Memorial Foundation, "Surgery, gynecology & obstetrics", page 76. From the entry quadripara
  • Its shady recesses would then harbor that special boletic reek which makes a Russian’s nostrils dilate— a dark, dank, satisfying blend of damp moss, rich earth, rotting leaves.1947, Vladimir Nabokov, Speak, Memory (1979 Paragon paperback), page 47. From the entry boletic
  • As unimpressive as this might sound to people who are used to having their pupils dilate and contract regularly, realize that no bony fish has this modification of the eye.1983, Richard Ellis, The Book of Sharks, Knopf, →ISBN, page 29. From the entry pupil

Meaning of dilate

  1. verb To enlarge; to make bigger.
  2. verb To become wider or larger; to expand.
  3. verb To speak largely and copiously; to dwell in narration; to enlarge; with "on" or "upon".

Full definition of dilate

Questions about dilate in a sentence

How do you use dilate in a sentence?
Dilate is used as a verb and adjective. For example: “The eye doctor put drops in my eye to dilate the pupil so he could see the nerve better.”
What is a short sentence with dilate?
“Except when it dilates and spaghettificates or panificates.”
What does dilate mean?
Dilate means to enlarge; to make bigger.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: dilate (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use dilate in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/dilate. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.