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Definition of expand : 1. To become widely opened, spread apart, dilated, distended, or enlarged; as, flowers expand in the spring; metals expand by heat; the heart expands with joy.
2. To cause the particles or parts of to spread themselves or stand apart, thus increasing bulk without addition of substance; to make to occupy more space; to dilate; to distend; to extend every way; to enlarge; -- opposed to contract; as, to expand the chest; heat expands all bodies; to expand the sphere of benevolence.
3. To lay open by extending; to open wide; to spread out; to diffuse; as, a flower expands its leaves.
4. To state in enlarged form; to develop; as, to expand an equation. See Expansion, 5.

Synonyms:

mushroom, exsert, business, overdraw, fat, complicate, dissipate, nail, hold out, smash, billow, pump up, continue, flesh, soar, aggrandize, sprawl, supersize, mount, pad, lead, gallop, go ballistic, brokerage, beef up, protract, hit the ceiling, gain, business plan, set out, run, spread out, fly off the handle, exaggerate, put across, plump out, thrive, throw a fit, flourish, lucubrate, lose one's temper, interpret, turn out, prove, accelerate, dramatise, fatten out, blow one's stack, unfold, beauty parade, carry, define, stretch forth, blow up, blast, wave, flip one's wig, assess, compute, hyperbolise, offer, mature, rotate, hyperbolize, set forth, flare, strain, hit the roof, roll up, fan, clarify, run through, broking, embellish, escalate, explain, book, asset, outstretch, puff, estimate, expound, poke out, spill over, puff out, dramatize, scale up, illustrate, distribute, splay, count, labor, outspread, add up, permeate, disperse, stoke, boom out, detonate, cover, lay out, elaborate, pervade, wax, expatiate, work out, unroll, din, snowball, capacity, overstate, pass, put out, wax and wane, run up, fill out, build up, open, boom, scatter, fan out, exposit, up, accumulate, account, have kittens, explode, rarify, appreciate, diffuse, brandish, aggrandise, fly high, embroider, flesh out, prosper, build, cannibalize, project, rise, lard, refine, plump, thunder, stretch out, draw out, outgrow, compound, flip one's lid, reach out, calculate, get ahead, bulk out, climb, puff up, go, have a fit, determine, string out, double, move, reckon, round, fatten up, blow a fuse, set off, balloon, combust, upsurge, hype, proliferate

stretch, engorge, swell, thicken, distend, spread, dilate, develop

elevate, increment, raise, magnify, upgrade, burgeon, augment, heighten, multiply, accrue, reinforce, extend, increase, enlarge, advance, inflate, boost, maximize, grow, broaden, fatten, widen, amplify, add, lengthen

enlarge upon, elongate, unfurl, prolong

Usage examples:

• Agriculture continued to expand, and associations for the protection and encouragement of special lines increased in number and in importance. - "History of Farming in Ontario", C. C. James.
• Usually there are only two or three which are completely developed, and these tend together towards the surface of the fungus, which they pass, and expand at liberty in the air. - "Fungi: Their Nature and Uses", Mordecai Cubitt Cooke.
• From the first, he had taken a lively interest in Miriam, and he considered that her life of responsibility and independence in that lonely household was as likely to warp her mind in some directions as it was to expand it in others. - "The Girl at Cobhurst", Frank Richard Stockton.