Derivatives or conjugates of expansion:
Expansible, expanse; expansible, expansibleness, expansile, expansional, expansionary, expansionism, expansionist, expansibly, expansibility, expansive, expansivity, expansively, expansiveness.
Derivatives from Lat. expandere:
Expanding, expander, expandedness, expandable, expandability, expanded, unexpanded, unexpansive, re-expand, re-expansion, spawn, coexpand
The act or process of expanding; the fact or state of being expanded; as:
Syn. Increase, spread, development, augment, enlargement
Ant. Contraction, decrease, limitation.
1. The action or process of spreading or unfolding; the state of being spread or unfolded; the opening of a bud, flower, etc.
The easy expansion of the wing of a bird.
Nehemiah Grew. Webster, third ed.
Which lobes, after the expansion of the flower, become fissured near their margins. Daniel Oliver (Lessons in Elementary Botany, 1872, OED)
b. The detailed expression of what is implicitly contained in a statement; the writing out in full the meaning of graphical contractions. OED. (Math.) The developed result of an indicated operation; the expression of a function in the form of a convergent series. Webster, sec. Ed. The act of expressing fully or of developing in detail; amplification. Webster, third ed.
c. Naval Arch. The mathematical enlargement of a ship's lines from a drawing or model to the full size of building, in the process of construction. Also attrib. OED.
Either a model of one side of the ship or an expansion drawing is prepared, on which to set off the edges and butts of the plates.
Edward J. Reed (Shipbuilding in Iron and Steel, 1869) OED
2. That which is expanded; an expanse; anything that is spread.
(In appositional construction: The expansion of + noun)
Etimological-semantic identity: French: expansion
The expansion of a sheet.
The starred expansion of the skies.
Beattie. Webster, sec. ed.
Your diminutive form under the apparent expansion of nightly darkness. –Estefalu.
3. Obs. a. Extent; space to which anything is extended. b. Pure space.
Lost in expansion, void and infinite. Blackmore. Webster 1913, sec. ed.
4. a. The action or process of causing something to occupy or contain a larger space, or of gaining greater volume or capacity; dilatation; distention; an instance of this.
The act or process of increasing in extent, size, number, volume, or scope; enlargement. Webster, third ed.
Etimological-semantic identity: Italian: espansione; French: expansion; Spanish: Expansión.
The application of heat to substances generally causes expansion. Liquids and solids expand at various rates, expressed by coefficients. Webster, sec. ed.
The expansion and compression of chest, commonly called breathing, is action purely muscular.
Edgar A. Poe.
A load of cotton, for example, tightly screwed while in certain conditions, has been known, through the expansion of its bulk, to rend a vessel asunder at sea.
Edgar A. Poe (The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym)
A sudden circular expansion of the flame.
Edgar A. Poe. The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym
The alternate expansion and contraction of the resin.
Jhon N. Anderson (Applied Dental Materials, 1961, OED)
If a rock fragment on a slope is moved by its own expansion or that of the pore-water it may be exposed to the pull of gravity. It will then creep slightly downhill.
Hatch & Rastall (The Petrology of the Sedimentary Rocks, 1965, OED)
The Sunbeam has power to wrinkle and crumple the surface of the sea by alternate expansion and contraction of its waters.
Matthew Maury (The Physical Geography of the Sea, 1860, OED)
Mercury is the liquid best adapted for thermometers; its expansion being most equable.
Anthony T. Thomson (The London Dispensatory, 1811, OED)
Such expansion or occupancy of space by a small quantity of matter.
Neil Arnott (Elements of Physics, 1833, OED)
A great expansion of light.
Thomas Hobbes (Elements of Ph. 1656) OED
b. Of immaterial things: enlargement:
Etimological-semantic identity: French: expansion; Italian: espansione; Spanish: Expansión.
Expansion of business; territorial expansion; expansion of the currency.
[…] a considerable expansion of the animated film into every kind of use from the television commercial to the highly specialized instructional film.
Jhon Halas & A. Manvell (The Technique of Film Animation, 1959)
This astonishing expansion of the Malaysian peoples throughout the Oceanic area.
Encycl. Brit. OED 1883
Monetary expansion. OED
d. Extension of the territorial rule of a country.
Etimological-semantic identity: Italian: espansione; Spanish: expansión; French: expansion.
The expansion of England.
Jhon R. Seeley 1882
5. The amount or degree of dilatation or expanding.
The expansion of the solid corresponding to two degrees of the thermometer, is twice the expansion which corresponds to one degree.
Andrew Ure (A Dictionary of Arts, etc., 1875) OED
6. An expanded or expanding part; a dilated part; an appendage; what (a thing) is expanded into; something that results from an act of expanding.
Etimological-semantic identity: Italian: espansione; French: expansion
This book was an expansion of a notable series of articles.
A. C. Ames. Webster, Third ed.
This lake [Geneva] is simply an expansion of the river Rhone.
John Tyndall (The Glaciers of the Alps, 1860) OED
A man has a personal work […] and a public work […] which is the expansion of the other.
John Ruskin (Sesame and Lilies, 1865) OED
The structure […] of the sensory expansion in which the optic nerve terminates.
Thomas Huxley (Lessons in Elementary Physiology, 1866) OED
Tubular spines […] abundant upon the auricular expansion.
Henry Nicholson (A Manual of Palæontology, 1872, OED)
The labrum, or outer lip […] is the expansion, or continuation of the body of the shell, on the right margin of the aperture.
George Richardson (An Introduction to Geology, 1851, OED)
A fibrous or cellulo-fibrous expansion.
Robert Todd (The Cycl. Anat., 1836, OED)
8. attrib. and Comb., as expansion apparatus, chamber = cloud chamber; expansion board Computing, a circuit board that may be connected to or inserted in a computer in order to provide extra facilities or memory; expansion box, a chamber fitted to a pipe to allow for the expansion of the liquid, gas, etc., which flows through the pipe; expansion card Computing = expansion board; expansion-slide, a slide belonging to the expansion-valve, a valve which shuts off the steam in its going to the cylinder; expansion slot Computing, a socket in a piece of computing equipment to which an expansion board may be connected.
