伸

Core sense: movement from a contracted or suppressed state to an extended or open one (centrifugal).

• Physical Extension: Stretching of limbs, straightening the body, or unfolding a folded object. Often carries connotations of relief, liberation, or recovery of posture.
• Expressive/Oral Extension: Bringing an internal state into public view; specifically voicing grievances, making formal pleas to a superior, or transitioning from silence to articulation.
• Abstract Expansion: Prolonging duration (temporal), expanding reach, influence, or territorial boundaries (spatial/political), or developing an argument further (logical).

• Transitive: To extend, stretch out, or unfold something.
• Intransitive: To stretch, straighten, or expand.
• Causative: Can function as "making something open/extend," typically signaled by context or supporting particles.

Contrast with 申: In early texts, these are frequently interchangeable. In later classical texts, a distinction emerges where 伸 leans toward the corporeal or emotional (physical stretching, voicing grief), while 申 leans toward the formal or administrative (stating a case, reporting, official decrees).

Regarding "trust": While some lexicons list this as a meaning, it is rarely a primary standalone sense. It typically functions as a derivative of "extending" trust or the fulfillment of an expectation. Unless the immediate context explicitly involves a relationship of faith, treat this as a secondary result of "extension."