To spread or stretch out; unfold; display.To increase in extent, size, bulk, or amount; inflate; distend; extend: as, to expand the chest by inspiration; heat expands all bodies.Hence To make broader in scope or more comprehensive: as, to expand the heart or affections, or the sphere of benevolence.To swell, blow up, fill, fill out, increase.To open out; become unfolded, spread out, or displayed.To increase in extent, size, bulk, amount, etc.; become dilated, distended, or enlarged.In zoology, to spread over a certain space: used in stating the distance from tip to tip of outspread wings—in the case of insects, of anterior wings.