How to Use dilate in a Sentence

dilate

verb

• The drug dilates the blood vessels.
• The drug causes the blood vessels to dilate.
• During labor, a woman's cervix will dilate to about 10 centimeters.
• This process helps to dilate the arteries, enhancing blood flow.
  — Sandra Rose Salathe, Flow Space, 18 June 2024
• Her last communication was that she was fully dilated and then … nothing.
  — Marla Jo Fisher, Orange County Register, 14 Aug. 2024
• Heart valve disease in later life, on the other hand, is much more gradual and often caused by calcium deposits around the valve area or warped valves caused by an enlarged or dilated heart due to high blood pressure.
  — Rachel Murphy, Verywell Health, 13 Aug. 2024
• The pupils dilate, and there’s a change in the position of the lens in the eye.
  — Jessica Wapner, Scientific American, 16 Nov. 2020
• The breath quickens, the pupils dilate, the heart begins to pound.
  — Diana Kwon, Scientific American, 12 Sep. 2019
• The drug made Mildred’s pupils dilate and the hair on her arms stand on end.
  — Washington Post, 21 Dec. 2017
• In the intensive care unit, his pupils were fixed and dilated, the suit states.
  — Ed Stannard, Hartford Courant, 4 June 2024
• The idea is that this dilates his blood vessels, and when the bag is removed, his brain gets a burst of oxygen.
  — Brendan Borrell, Slate Magazine, 22 Sep. 2017
• Your pulse quickens, your pupils dilate, your hairs stand on end.
  — David Fear, Rolling Stone, 24 Nov. 2021
• Walcott’s free verse dilates upon the places the images evoke for him.
  — Joshua Jelly-Schapiro, The New Yorker, 12 Jan. 2017
• If that occurs, most of the time the cervix will stop dilating and the baby will not descend into the birth canal.
  — Julie Mazziotta, PEOPLE.com, 7 Mar. 2018
• The next time my midwife came to check me, I was fully dilated.
  — The Cut, 29 June 2017
• So she was assigned a bed and told to hurry up and dilate—and was left largely on her own to do so.
  — Ian Johnson, The New York Review of Books, 4 June 2020
• Her nose presses against the grate, her eyes still dilated from the narcotics, blinking in the harsh light.
  — S.e. Smith, Longreads, 2 Nov. 2017
• Rest your head on your pet’s chest to check their heartbeat or look for signs that their pupil has dilated.
  — Simmone Shah, TIME, 9 July 2024
• Your doctor will dilate your pupils to look behind them.
  — Kaitlyn Pirie, Good Housekeeping, 2 Apr. 2020
• The drug is still widely considered effective when it is used in surgery and to dilate the eyes.
  — Christina Jewett, BostonGlobe.com, 12 Sep. 2023
• To watch the series and the documentary is to dilate, helplessly, on what has changed (or not) in the past 30 or so years.
  — New York Times, 26 Mar. 2021
• To send more blood to the skin’s surface, the heart beats faster and blood vessels dilate to accommodate more blood flow.
  — Dominique Mosbergen, WSJ, 20 July 2022
• My partner had started to dilate at 29 weeks and our babies were born at 36 weeks.
  — Amber Leventry, Longreads, 29 June 2018
• Alcohol also make the blood vessels in your body dilate, so the heat goes right up through your skin.
  — USA TODAY, 2 Feb. 2018
• The pupils of our eyes constrict and dilate in parallel with the other person’s.
  — Geoff Colvin, Fortune, 10 Aug. 2020
• The feeling had to do with that ability to somehow dilate time.
  — John Von Sothen, Bon Appetit, 19 Jan. 2017
• The feeling had to do with that ability to somehow dilate time.
  — John Von Sothen, Bon Appetit, 19 Jan. 2017
• The thinking at the time was that loss of serotonin caused blood vessels to lose tone and dilate, bringing on migraine pain.
  — R. Allan Purdy, Scientific American, 1 May 2017
• Your provider may need to dilate your eyes during your exam, and the effect of the drops can last for several hours.
  — Korin Miller, Verywell Health, 14 Aug. 2024
• Then, about four minutes in, the song dilates into a dirty masterclass in trap hop.
  — Spin Staff, SPIN, 13 Dec. 2023

Last Updated: 21 Dec 2024