Emily Dickinson Lexicon

DIL-A-TA'TION, n.

The act of expanding; expansion; a spreading or extending in all directions; the state of being expanded; opposed to contraction. Dilatation differs from extension, as the latter is applied to lines and surfaces; the former to bodies that spread, open or enlarge in all directions. A line or a plain is extended; a bladder, an artery, a balloon is dilated.