di|as|to|le

di|as|to|le «dy AS tuh lee», noun.

1. the regular expansion of the heart each time its cavities fill with blood. It alternates with the contraction (systole), the two making up the cardiac cycle that includes brief intervening periods of inactivity (diastases).

2. (in ancient prosody) the lengthening of a short syllable when metrically accented or before a pause.

╂[< Late Latin diastolē < Greek diastol prolongation, expansion, ultimately < diá- apart + stéllein send]