dilatation
(daɪləˈteɪʃən)
[a. OF. dilatacion, -ation (14th c. in Hatz.-Darm.) = It. dilatazione, Sp. dilatacion, ad. L. dīlātātiōn-em, n. of action f. dīlātā-re to dilate v.2]
1. a. The action or process of dilating; the condition of being dilated; widening out, expansion, enlargement. (Chiefly in Physics and Physiol.)
| c 1400 Lanfranc's Cirurg. 66 And if þat þe blood go out of arterie þou schalt knowe it bi construccion and dilatacion of þe same arterie. 1589 Cogan Haven Health ccxliii (1636) 299 By blowing of the winde or dilatation of the ayre. 1660 Boyle New Exp. Phys. Mech. i. 28 It appears not that any compression of the Air preceded its spontaneous Dilatation or Expansion of it self. 1685 ― Effects of Mot. ix. 108 The dilatation of metals..by Heat. 1732 Arbuthnot Rules of Diet 389 There may be a Dropsy..by a Dilatation of the serous Vessels. 1826 Henry Elem. Chem. I. 80 The expansion or dilatation of bodies..is an almost universal effect of an increase of temperature. 1849 M. Somerville Connect. Phys. Sc. xvii. 156 Alternate condensations and dilatations of the strata. 1871 W. A. Hammond Dis. Nerv. Syst. 46 The emotions of shame, of anger, and others, cause the face to become red from dilatation of the blood-vessels. |
| fig. 1659 Stanley Hist. Philos. xiii. (1701) 590/2 Pleasure..is produced with a kind of dilatation and exaltation of the Soul. 1762 Kames Elem. Crit. (1833) 221 We feel a gradual dilatation of mind. 1877 Wraxall Hugo's Miserables iv. xlix. 33 There is a dilatation of thought peculiar to the vicinity of a tomb. |
b. concr. A dilated form, formation, or portion of any structure.
| 1833 Thirlwall in Philol. Museum II. 163 Memnon is only a dilatation of Menon. 1854 Woodward Mollusca ii. 161 A similar contractile dilatation exists at the end of the foot. 1857 Berkeley Cryptog. Bot. §73 The only semblance of a root is a little dilatation of the base. 1861 Hulme tr. Moquin-Tandon ii. i. 43 This dilatation divides the digestive canal into three parts. |
c. dilatation and curettage (or curetting) Gynæcol., an operation involving dilatation of the cervix and curettage of the uterus, carried out for diagnostic purposes, to terminate a pregnancy, or to arrest irregular menstrual bleeding.
| 1906 D. B. Hart in Allbutt et al. Syst. Gynaecol. (ed. 2) 70 Dilatation and curetting. This is a very important procedure where malignant disease of the mucous membrane of the body is suspected. 1920 H. S. Crossen Operative Gynecol. (ed. 2) v. 268 (caption) The safe method of securing the necessary fixation of the cervix, for Dilatation and Curettage. 1964 Jrnl. Obstetrics & Gynaecol. LXXI. 668/2 Dilatation and curettage has a major place in the diagnostic and therapeutic armamentarium of the obstetrician and gynaecologist. |
2. The spreading abroad, extension, expansion (of immaterial or abstract things). arch.
| 1448 Will of Hen. VI in Willis & Clark Cambridge (1886) I. 353 Dilatacion, and stablisshement of christen feith. 1610 Bp. Carleton Jurisd. 174 For preseruation and dilatation of peace and iustice. 1646 J. Temple Irish Rebell. 65 Before I..come to declare the universal dilatation of [the rebellion] throughout the whole kingdom. 1839 Card. Wiseman Cath. & Angl. Ch. Ess. (1853) II. 232 To the end of the world, room will be left for the dilatation of religion. |
3. The action or practice of dilating upon a subject in speech or writing; amplification, enlargement, diffuse treatment.
| c 1386 Chaucer Man of Law's T. 134 What needeth gretter dilatacioun? c 1440 J. Capgrave Life St. Kath. iv. 2278 But this dilatacyon..longeth not to this lyf present. 1605 Bacon Adv. Learn. ii. vii. §5. 28 God [is] Holy in the description or dilatation of his workes. 1645 Gaule Cases Consc. (1646) 4, I resolue against all such dilatations in this Epitome. 1779 Johnson L.P., Dryden Wks. II. 428 Little more than a dilatation of the praise given it by Pope. 1873 Lowell Among my Books Ser. ii. 285, I have spoken of Spenser's fondness for dilatation as respects thoughts and images. |
Hence dilaˈtational a., of or pertaining to a dilatation.
| 1884 Bower & Scott De Bary's Phaner. 539 The first dilatational bands of the external cortex. 1895 Story-Maskelyne Crystallogr. i. 11 The dilatational changes resulting from variation of temperature in a crystal. |
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▸ dilatation and extraction n. Surg. = dilation and extraction n. at dilation n.2 Additions.
| 1979 Amer. Jrnl. Obstetr. & Gynecol. 135 235 We studied 250 midtrimester abortions by *dilatation and extraction (D and E) under general anesthesia and compared them with abortions by the intra-amniotic injection of prostaglandin (amnio). 2003 Boston Globe (Nexis) 28 Oct. c3 The new Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003, approved by Congress earlier in the month, is aimed at the less-common ‘partial-birth’ abortion, medically known as an ‘intact D&E’ or a ‘dilatation and extraction’, or D&X. |