dilation

The act of dilating.

State of being dilated; expansion; dilatation.

Delay.

The wise queen, however she might seem to have a fair opportunity offered to her suit, finds it not good to apprehend it too suddenly; as desiring by this small dilation to prepare the ear and heart of the king for so important a request

In morphology, a basic operation (denoted ⊕) that usually uses a structuring element for probing and expanding the shapes contained in the input image.