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Distend vs Protrude - What's the difference?

distend | protrude |

As verbs the difference between distend and protrude

is that distend is to extend or expand, as from internal pressure; to swell while protrude is to extend from, above or beyond a surface or boundary; to bulge outward; to stick out.

distend

English

Verb

(en verb)
  • To extend or expand, as from internal pressure; to swell
  • *
  • (transitive, reflexive, archaic) To extend; to stretch out; to spread out.
  • * 1662 Thomas Salusbury, Galileo's Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems (Dialogue 2):
  • These impure and frail matters are conteined within the angust concave of the Lunar Orb, above which with uninterrupted Series the things Celestial distend themselves.
  • * Milton
  • But say, what mean those coloured streaks in heaven / Distended as the brow of God appeased?
  • To cause to swell.
  • (biology) To cause gravidity.
  • Derived terms

    * distensible

    References

    * ----

    protrude

    English

    Verb

    (protrud)
  • To extend from, above or beyond a surface or boundary; to bulge outward; to stick out.
  • *
  • Archegonia are surrounded early in their development by the juvenile perianth, through the slender beak of which the elongated neck of the fertilized archegonium protrudes .
  • To thrust forward; to drive or force along.
  • (John Locke)
  • To thrust out, as through a narrow orifice or from confinement; to cause to come forth.
  • * Thomson
  • When Spring protrudes the bursting gems.

    Derived terms

    * protrudable * protrudent * protrusible * protrusion