a. [as if ad. L. *expansibil-is, f. expans- ppl. stem of expandĕre: see EXPAND and -IBLE. Cf. Fr. expansible.] That can be expanded.
1. That can be opened or spread out.
1730–6. in Bailey (folio).
1876. Bartholow, Mat. Med. (1879), 89. An intra-uterine speculum with expansible blades.
2. That can be made to occupy or contain a larger space; esp. of material substances, capable of expansion by heat, etc.
a. 1691. Boyle, Hist. Air, ii. (1692), 5. Readily expansible … by Heat, Girations, and other Motions.
1792. Phil. Trans., LXXXII. 401. Whenever water is in a state of evaporation, an expansible fluid, composed of water and fire, is produced.
1812. Sir H. Davy, Chem. Philos., 70. Glass is less expansible than any of the metals.
1871. B. Stewart, Heat, § 80. The most expansible metal will form the outside or convex surface of the curve, and the least expansible the concave.
b. Of an immaterial object: Capable of being enlarged in scope or operation.
1850. De Quincey, in ‘H. A. Page,’ Life (1877), II. xvii. 73. The great moving and expansible system of theology.
1884. Sir N. Lindley, in Law Times Rep., 9 Feb., 727/2. A market … limited by metes and bounds, so as not to be expansible.
Hence Expansibleness, the quality of being expansible; expansibility. Expansibly adv., in an expansible manner; so as to be expanded.
1847. in Craig; and in mod. Dicts.
