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Distend vs Swelling - What's the difference?

distend | swelling |

As verbs the difference between distend and swelling

is that distend is to extend or expand, as from internal pressure; to swell while swelling is .

As a noun swelling is

the state of being swollen.

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

    * ----

    swelling

    English

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • The state of being swollen.
  • * {{quote-book
  • , year= a1420 , year_published= 1894 , author= The British Museum Additional MS, 12,056 , by= (Lanfranc of Milan) , title= Lanfranc's "Science of cirurgie." , url= http://books.google.com/books?id=6XktAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA63 , original= , chapter= Wounds complicated by the Dislocation of a Bone , section= , isbn= 1163911380 , edition= , publisher= K. Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co , location= London , editor= Robert von Fleischhacker , volume= , page= 63 , passage= Ne take noon hede to brynge togidere þe parties of þe boon þat is to-broken or dislocate, til viij. daies ben goon in þe wyntir, & v. in þe somer; for þanne it schal make quytture, and be sikir from swellynge ; & þanne brynge togidere þe brynkis eiþer þe disiuncture after þe techynge þat schal be seid in þe chapitle of algebra. }}
  • Anything swollen, especially any abnormally swollen part of the body.
  • See also

    * edema

    Verb

    (head)