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Verb: distend  di'stend
  1. Become wider
    - dilate
     
  2. Cause to expand as it by internal pressure
    "The gas distended the animal's body"
     
  3. Swell from or as if from internal pressure
    "The distended bellies of the starving cows"

Derived forms: distended, distending, distends

See also: distensible, distension, distention

Type of: bloat, intumesce, swell, swell up, tumefy, tumesce, widen