dehnen

German

Etymology

From Middle High German denen, dennen, from Old High German thenen, thennen, from Proto-West Germanic *þannjan, from Proto-Germanic *þanjaną, from Proto-Indo-European *ten- (to stretch). The simple -n- was generalised from certain inflected forms of the West Germanic verb. Cognate with Gothic 𐌿𐍆𐌸𐌰𐌽𐌾𐌰𐌽 (ufþanjan), Latin tenēre.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈdeːnən/, [ˈdeː.nən], [ˈdeː.nn̩]
  • (file)
  • Hyphenation: deh‧nen
  • Homophones: denen (general), Dänen (many speakers, especially northern and eastern regions)

Verb

dehnen (weak, third-person singular present dehnt, past tense dehnte, past participle gedehnt, auxiliary haben)

  1. to stretch, to make longer or wider by pulling, pushing, extending
    Synonym: strecken

Usage notes

  • Strecken and dehnen are often interchangeable, but the latter implies that the stretching goes to the limit. This difference is most evident with limbs: die Beine strecken (to extend one's legs) vs. die Beine dehnen (to stretch one's legs for flexibility). Accordingly, dehnen is also used in such figurative contexts as das Gesetz dehnen (to stretch the law).

Conjugation

Lua error in Module:utilities at line 142: attempt to perform arithmetic on local 'h' (a nil value)

Derived terms

Further reading

  • dehnen” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache
  • dehnen” in Uni Leipzig: Wortschatz-Lexikon
  • dehnen” in Duden online
  • dehnen” in OpenThesaurus.de

Luxembourgish

Verb

dehnen (third-person singular present dehnt, past participle gedehnt, auxiliary verb hunn)

  1. Superseded spelling of deenen.

Conjugation

Lua error: attempt to perform arithmetic on local 'h' (a nil value)

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