Definition of "expand"

expand

/ɛkˈspænd/

verb
third-person singular simple present expands, present participle expanding, simple past and past participle expanded
1. (transitive) To change (something) from a smaller form or size to a larger one; to spread out or lay open.
2. (transitive) To increase the extent, number, volume or scope of (something).
  Quotations
  Then with expanded wings he steers his flight.
  1667, John Milton, “Book I”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […]; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873,
  This has evidently been encouraging, for the current winter timetable - not even with the benefit of summer holiday traffic - shows that the two trains each way have been expanded to four.
  1961 October, “The winter timetables of British Railways: Scottish Region”, in Trains Illustrated, page 594
3. (transitive) To express (something) at length and/or in detail.
4. (transitive, algebra) To rewrite (an expression) as a longer, yet equivalent sum of terms.
5. (intransitive, algebra, of an expression) To become, by rewriting, a longer, yet equivalent sum of terms.
6. (transitive, arithmetic) To multiply both the numerator and the denominator of a fraction by the same natural number yielding a fraction of equal value
7. (intransitive) To change or grow from smaller to larger in form, number, or size.
8. (intransitive) To increase in extent, number, volume or scope.
9. (intransitive) To speak or write at length or in detail.
  Quotations
  There was some laughter, and Roddle was left free to expand his ideas on the periodic visits of cowboys to the town. “Mason Rickets, he had ten big punkins a-sittin' in front of his store, an' them fellers from the Upside-down-F ranch shot 'em up […] ”
  1899, Stephen Crane, chapter 1, in Twelve O'Clock
10. (intransitive) To feel generous or optimistic.

Definition of "expand"

expand

verb

Quotations

Quotations