verb ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Verb

1. 1
   To swell or enlarge (abnormally)
2. 2
   expand abnormally wordnet
3. 3
   To bubble up (as the result of heating)
4. 4
   move upwards in bubbles, as from the effect of heating; also used metaphorically wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms

bubble upbubble upswellswellswell uptumefy

Etymology

From Latin intumēscō.

Related phrases

bubble up

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.