distend

Instead, random bits of the Peep chick — its flat base, the curved neck, the tail — distend until they look like bubbles about to burst.

From Salon ● Feb. 2, 2023

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

What might have been a crisp and moody entertainment, in Graham Greene’s elevated sense of that word, distends.

From New York Times ● Jan. 5, 2023

Food that distends the stomach initiates long reflexes.

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

This sensation is produced by any thing which punctures, cuts, tears, distends, compresses, bruises, corrodes, burns, or violently stimulates any part of the body.

From Popular Lectures on Zoonomia Or The Laws of Animal Life, in Health and Disease by Thomas Garnett

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

To actually feel intoxicated, a chimp would need to eat so much fruit that its stomach would become painfully distended.

From Science Daily ● Dec. 1, 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

One cannot help but be surprised by the sheer volume of what pours forth from Tiny's distended mouth.

From "Will Grayson, Will Grayson" by John Green and David Levithan

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