🛠️ A widening tool 💪 A widening muscle 💊 A widening drug

dilator

7.2

A medicine that makes a body part wider, for example blood vessels or pupils

noun
/daɪˈleɪtər/

Specialized

: vasodilatador

The doctor prescribed an eye drop that functions as a dilator to enlarge the pupils for examination.

So it's a vaso dilator, so you should have more blood flow.

Examples

So it's a vaso dilator, so you should have more blood flow.

Chris Williamson
It's a vessel dilator.

Criminal (2016)
Migraine begins with an electrical storm in the brain stem, the seat of the autonomic nervous system, the controller of heartbeat and sleep, the dilator of pupils, and the regulator of airways.

Academic text (2010)
A nitroglycerin tablet acts as a dilator to improve blood flow to the heart.
During the surgery, they used a dilator to widen the opening in the blocked artery.

Synonyms

vasodilator

vsdilator

Specialized

1 7.2

A drug that makes blood vessels wider to increase blood flow

is broader, applies to dilation beyond blood vessels such as pupils

mydriatic

vsdilator

Specialized

9.9

A medicine that makes the pupil of the eye larger for an eye exam

is more general, applies to many body parts not only the pupil

mydriatic drug

vsdilator

Specialized

8.5

Medicine that makes the pupil larger to help eye exams

is the general term covering dilation of many body parts

How Wide

vasodilator

Specialized

1 7.2

dilator

Specialized

7.2

Surface Forms

dilator singular

dilators plural

Morphology

dilator = dilate (transparent) = dilate + or

The sense 'a drug or agent that causes dilation' is a direct semantic extension of 'one that dilates', formed with '-or'.

Etymology

Dilator comes from an old Latin word meaning 'to make wide', like the verb dilate. So a dilator as a drug or agent is something that causes blood vessels, pupils, or other body parts to become wider.