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.
  • Thirty is the age where time dilates.
    — Eileen Kelly, Vogue, 16 Dec. 2025
  • Your pulse quickens, your pupils dilate, your hairs stand on end.
    — David Fear, Rolling Stone, 24 Nov. 2021
  • Blood was flowing from her left ear and her pupils were dilated.
    — Danielle Bacher, PEOPLE, 20 Jan. 2026
  • Blood was flowing from her left ear and her pupils were dilated.
    — Danielle Bacher, PEOPLE, 16 Jan. 2026
  • These can help dilate your blood vessels and improve blood flow.
    — Sherri Gordon, Health, 4 May 2026
  • The drug made Mildred’s pupils dilate and the hair on her arms stand on end.
    — Washington Post, 21 Dec. 2017
  • The breath quickens, the pupils dilate, the heart begins to pound.
    — Diana Kwon, Scientific American, 12 Sep. 2019
  • The pupils dilate, and there’s a change in the position of the lens in the eye.
    — Jessica Wapner, Scientific American, 16 Nov. 2020
  • In the later stages, skin will turn blue, pupils will dilate, and pulse and breathing slow.
    — Brayden Garcia january 21, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 21 Jan. 2026
  • 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
  • In order to find out if this was the case, doctors needed to dilate his pupils to check.
    — Jack Beresford, MSNBC Newsweek, 28 June 2025
  • Walcott’s free verse dilates upon the places the images evoke for him.
    — Joshua Jelly-Schapiro, The New Yorker, 12 Jan. 2017
  • In the intensive care unit, his pupils were fixed and dilated, the suit states.
    — Ed Stannard, Hartford Courant, 4 June 2024
  • His hair is white; his eyes dilate behind his rimless glasses.
    — Alexandra Schwartz, The New Yorker, 31 Jan. 2022
  • Warming your feet causes blood vessels to dilate, which pulls heat away from your core.
    — Allison Palmer, Kansas City Star, 13 May 2026
  • Warming your feet causes blood vessels to dilate, which pulls heat away from your core.
    — Allison Palmer, Kansas City Star, 12 May 2026
  • 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
  • The next time my midwife came to check me, I was fully dilated.
    — The Cut, 29 June 2017
  • 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
  • It was dilated, trying to pump more blood and in the process getting bigger.
    — Lisa Hughes, CBS News, 2 Apr. 2026
  • The feeling had to do with that ability to somehow dilate time.
    — John Von Sothen, Bon Appetit, 19 Jan. 2017
  • The cervix can open (dilate) to let out fluids like blood during a period.
    — Andrea L. Braden, Verywell Health, 14 Feb. 2025
  • So anything that causes blood vessels to dilate can trigger a flare-up.
    — Nadia Berenstein, SELF, 19 Dec. 2018
  • Then, about four minutes in, the song dilates into a dirty masterclass in trap hop.
    — Spin Staff, SPIN, 13 Dec. 2023
  • Maybe you were attracted to this person, and your eyes dilated, your pulse went up.
    — David Marchese Photograph By Mamadi Doumbouya, New York Times, 2 Feb. 2024
  • Alcohol also make the blood vessels in your body dilate, so the heat goes right up through your skin.
    — USA TODAY, 2 Feb. 2018
  • Zhukovskyy was unsteady on his feet and his pupils were dilated, Dorris said.
    — Matt Rocheleau, BostonGlobe.com, 27 June 2019

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'dilate.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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