dilate

verb

1. (transitive)To enlarge; to make bigger.

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

2. (intransitive)To become wider or larger; to expand.

   “His heart dilates and glories in his strength.”

3. (ambitransitive)To speak largely and copiously; to dwell in narration; to enlarge; with "on" or "upon".

   “Do me the favour to dilate at full / What hath befallen of them and thee till now.”

   “But still they on their ancient joys dilate.”

   “Houellebecq’s men[…] dilate lovingly upon the makes and models of cars and appliances, and the subsidiary brands of hospitality and conglomerates.”

4. (ambitransitive)To use a dilator to widen (something, such as a vagina).

   “An experimenter in New York has recently advocated what he is pleased to call temporary forcible dilatation of the trachea in the treatment of membranous croup, his idea being to introduce into the trachea a dilator and to forcibly dilate, every few hours if need be, and he reports favorable results.”

   “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.”

   “He gave her some of the dilators he used to dilate her vagina shortly after the surgery and encouraged her to do it frequently.”

   “It is important to realize that a number of these women do not want to have their vaginismus treated but only to achieve pregnancy. […] The use of hard plastic rods with increasing diameters, a sort of pseudopenis, can be useful, provided it is explained to the woman that these rods are not used to dilate her vagina but are a means of training the relaxation of her pelvic muscles and of getting these muscles under control.”

5. (obsolete, transitive)To delay, defer.

   “Without more time delated.”

6. (obsolete, transitive)To prolong, lengthen.

   “A […] way to dilate a remembrance beyond the banks of Forgetfulness.”

adj

1. (archaic, obsolete)Carried in different ways, spread, abroad, dispersed, published.

   “Returne the lords this voyce, we aré their creature : And it is fit, a good, and honeſt prince, Whom they, out of their bounty, haue inſtucted With ſo dilate, and abſolute a power, Should owe the office of it, to their ſeruice ; And good of all, and euery citizen.”