WordWeb Online

1. Extend in one or more directions
   "The dough expands"
   - spread out
    
2. Become larger in size or volume or quantity
   "his business expanded rapidly"
    
3. Make bigger or wider in size, volume, or quantity
   "expand the house by adding another wing"
    
4. Grow vigorously
   "business is expanding"
   - boom, thrive, flourish
    
5. Exaggerate or make bigger
   "The charges were expanded"
   - inflate, blow up, amplify
    
6. Add details, as to an account or idea; clarify the meaning of and discourse in a learned way, usually in writing
   "She expanded on the main ideas in her dissertation"
   - elaborate, lucubrate, expatiate, exposit, enlarge, flesh out, expound, dilate
    
7. Extend the influence of
   "The King expanded his rule to the Eastern part of the continent"
   - extend
    
8. (algebra) rewrite as an equivalent longer sum of terms

Derived forms: expanded, expands, expanding

See also: expansible, expansion, expansive

Type of: alter, change, clarify, clear up, elucidate, enlarge, grow, increase, modify

Antonym: contract

Encyclopedia: Expand