English Explanatory Dictionary

swell

English dictionary entry

Meanings

verb
  1. To become bigger, especially due to being engorged.
  2. To cause to become bigger.
  3. To grow gradually in force or loudness.
  4. To cause to grow gradually in force or loudness.
  5. To raise to arrogance; to puff up; to inflate.
  6. To be raised to arrogance.
  7. To be elated; to rise arrogantly.
  8. To be turgid, bombastic, or extravagant.
  9. To protuberate; to bulge out.
noun
  1. The act of swelling; increase in size.
  2. A bulge or protuberance.
  3. Increase of power in style, or of rhetorical force.
  4. A long series of ocean waves, generally produced by wind, and lasting after the wind has ceased.
  5. A gradual crescendo followed by diminuendo.
  6. A device for controlling the volume of a pipe organ.
  7. A division in a pipe organ, usually the largest enclosed division.
  8. A hillock or similar raised area of terrain.
  9. An upward protrusion of strata from whose central region the beds dip quaquaversally at a low angle.
  10. A person who is stylish, fancy, or elegant.
  11. A person of high social standing; an important person.
  12. The front brow of a saddle bow, connected in the tree by the two saddle bars to the cantle on the other end.
adj
  1. Fashionable, like a swell or dandy.
  2. Excellent.
adv
  1. Very well.

Pronunciation

swĕl /swɛl/ LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-swell.wav

Word forms

swell swells swelling swelled swole swoll swollen sweller swellest

Etymology

From Middle English swellen, from Old English swellan (“to swell”), from Proto-West Germanic *swellan, from Proto-Germanic *swellaną (“to swell”), of unknown origin. Cognate with Saterland Frisian swälle (“to swell”), West Frisian swolle (“to swell”), Dutch zwellen (“to swell”), Low German swellen (“to swell”), German schwellen (“to swell”), Swedish svälla (“to swell”), Icelandic svella. The adjective may derive from the noun.

Synonyms

dandy dude toff barbermonger beau blade blood buck carpet knight cockscomb dike dood dudelet exquisite fashionable fast man fine gentleman fop foretop fribble gallant go jack-a-dandy Jemmy-Jessamy jetter macaroni masher metrosexual mignon petit maître popinjay pretty boy prig puss-gentleman smart spark spiff swell tippy pommel fork

Derived words

outswell overswell preswell reswell swellability swellable swellage swellfish swellhead swell out swellshark swell the ranks swelltoad swell up swelly unswell ground swell groundswell knee swell one swell foop shrink-swell swell box swelldom swell-headed swellish swell mob swell-mobsman swell organ underswell upswell Venetian swell wind swell swellegant swellness

Translations

Swahili: kivimbe
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