a. [f. L. expans- ppl. stem of expandĕre to EXPAND + -ILE.]
1. Having the property of being expanded; capable of expansion, dilatable.
1776. T. Percival, Philos. Med. & Exp. Ess., III. 265. This effect it [heat] produces by its expansile power.
1783. Pott, Chirurg. Wks., II. 63. Its natural soft expansile state.
1793. Fordyce, in Phil. Trans., LXXXIV. 5. Expansile and contractile by heat and cold.
1869. Gillmore, Reptiles & Birds, iii. 117. Others have an expansile gular pouch.
1884. W. C. Wilkinson, E. Arnold, II. vii. 166. The illimitably expansile cloud-land of Hindu philosophy.
2. Of or pertaining to expansion; of the nature of or tending to or capable of producing expansion.
17306. in Bailey (folio).
1873. Roberts, Handbk. Med., 465. Expansile movements are greatly deficient or absent.