distend

Pregnancy is a wonder, even through the finale when a parent pushes their newborns into the world, and those tiny humans distend the most intimate parts of their bodies.

From Salon ● Nov. 9, 2025

Its body seemed to distend, its muscles to melt.

From The New Yorker ● Feb. 11, 2019

Does the league really want to so distend its compensation scale for any commissioner, much less this one?

From Washington Post ● Nov. 14, 2017

This disorder arises when defective valves allow blood to accumulate within the veins, causing them to distend, twist, and become visible on the surface of the integument.

From Textbooks ● Jun. 19, 2013

The face of Etienne’s watch appears to distend.

From "All the Light We Cannot See" by Anthony Doerr

In his 1979 piece “Triangle — Stone/Cloth,” which leads off the exhibition, a fist-size rock distends a white banner into a triangular rictus of billows.

From New York Times ● Apr. 10, 2019

In contrast, food that distends the stomach initiates short reflexes that cause cells in the stomach wall to increase their secretion of digestive juices.

From Textbooks ● Jun. 19, 2013

Within an hour of lunch, the stomach distends to the point where pants need to be unbuttoned, and it remains this way for the rest of the day.

From US News ● Nov. 21, 2012

An analogy often invoked across Afghanistan is that of the water-filled bag: squeeze the bottom, the top distends.

From New York Times ● Feb. 1, 2012

Veins absorb the blood, propel it forwards, and distend the heart; contraction of the heart distends the arteries.

From Zoonomia, Vol. I Or, the Laws of Organic Life by Erasmus Darwin

Yet had Beijing followed through on the financial liberalization envisioned in the WTO agreement, the housing market might not have grown so distended or the balance sheets of local governments so precarious.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 12, 2026

But the groaning synthesizer underneath her bashful smile tells you something is off — a crystalline tone now distended, unnerving.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 21, 2026

Zar Zar has a distended belly because of a serious abdominal injury.

From BBC ● Apr. 2, 2025

Onyeaka wondered if that abundance could be harnessed to feed people in conflict zones where children were suffering from malnutrition, their distended stomachs a clear sign of protein deficiency.

From Salon ● Jan. 29, 2025

She was misshapen; her belly, tight and heavy and distended, made it impossible for her to stand without supporting herself with her hands.

From "East of Eden" by John Steinbeck

Songs like “No Good Deed” and “March of the Witch Hunters” are chopped up and rearranged to allow for more dialogue and less emoting, distending the film into a bloated heap.

From Salon ● Nov. 21, 2025

I think what we are going for is condensing stage time, while distending mythic time … if that makes ANY sense!

From New York Times ● Nov. 22, 2021

It’s a reminder that our smallness is sometimes petty, the unwelcome gravity of others’ suffering distending her grief.

From Slate ● Jun. 9, 2016

Maintaining vascular tone within the veins prevents the veins from merely distending, dampening the flow of blood, and as you will see, vasoconstriction actually enhances the flow.

From Textbooks ● Jun. 19, 2013

It is misleading to describe the expansion of the universe as a sort of distending bubble viewed from the outside.

From "Cosmos" by Carl Sagan