–verb (used with object)

1.	to stretch out; draw out to the full length: He extended the measuring tape as far as it would go.

2.	to stretch, draw, or arrange in a given direction, or so as to reach a particular point, as a cord, wall, or line of troops.

3.	to stretch forth or hold out, as the arm or hand: to extend one's hand in greeting.

4.	to place at full length, esp. horizontally, as the body or limbs.

5.	to increase the length or duration of; lengthen; prolong: to extend a visit.

6.	to stretch out in various or all directions; expand; spread out in area: A huge tent was extended over the field.

7.	to enlarge the scope of, or make more comprehensive, as operations, influence, or meaning: The European powers extended their authority in Asia.

8.	to provide as an offer or grant; offer; grant; give: to extend aid to needy scholars.

9.	Finance. to postpone (the payment of a debt) beyond the time originally agreed upon.

10.	to increase the bulk or volume of, esp. by adding an inexpensive or plentiful substance.

11.	Bookkeeping. to transfer (figures) from one column to another.

12.	Law. a. British. to assess or value. b. to make a seizure or levy upon, as land, by a writ of extent.

13.	Manège. to bring (a horse) into an extended attitude.

14.	to exert (oneself) to an unusual degree.

15.	Archaic. to exaggerate.

16.	Obsolete. to take by seizure.

–verb (used without object)

17.	to be or become extended; stretch out in length, duration, or in various or all directions.

18.	to reach, as to a particular point.

19.	to increase in length, area, scope, etc.

20.	Manège. (of a horse) to come into an extended attitude.

–noun

1.	Music. a wand used by a conductor.

2.	a rod of lightweight metal fitted with a weighted bulb at each end and carried and twirled by a drum major or majorette.

3.	Track. a hollow rod of wood, paper, or plastic that is passed during a race from one member of a relay team to the next in a prescribed area.

4.	a staff, club, or truncheon, esp. one serving as a mark of office or authority.

5.	Heraldry. a. a diminutive of the bend sinister, couped at the extremities: used in England as a mark of bastardy. b. a similar dim 3e8 inutive of the ordinary bend.