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Swell
Definitions
- 1 Fashionable, like a swell or dandy. dated, not-comparable, usually
"We pay the express, $5 a day our new agents are making and wearing the swellest clothes besides; old agents after one season make twice as much."
- 2 Excellent. Canada, US, dated, not-comparable, slang, usually
"...you are my devoted friend too. You do more and work harder and oh shit I'd get maudlin about how damned swell you are. My god I'd like to see you... You're a hell of a good guy."
- 1 excellent wordnet
- 1 Very well. Canada, US, informal, not-comparable
"“That lousy ring wasn’t worth no grand. I did swell to get two centuries for it.”"
- 1 The act of swelling; increase in size. countable, uncountable
- 2 a crescendo followed by a decrescendo wordnet
- 3 A bulge or protuberance. countable, uncountable
- 4 the undulating movement of the surface of the open sea wordnet
- 5 Increase of power in style, or of rhetorical force. countable, uncountable
"Concentrated are his arguments, select and distinct and orderly his topics, ready and unfastidious his expressions, popular his allusions, plain his illustrations, easy the swell and subsidence of his periods […]"
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- 6 a rounded elevation (especially one on an ocean floor) wordnet
- 7 A long series of ocean waves, generally produced by wind, and lasting after the wind has ceased. countable, uncountable
"the heave of a heavy ocean swell"
- 8 a man who is much concerned with his dress and appearance wordnet
- 9 A gradual crescendo followed by diminuendo. countable, uncountable
"He was thinking; but the glory of the song, the swell from the great organ, the clustered lights, […], the height and vastness of this noble fane, its antiquity and its strength—all these things seemed to have their part as causes of the thrilling emotion that accompanied his thoughts."
- 10 A device for controlling the volume of a pipe organ. countable, uncountable
- 11 A division in a pipe organ, usually the largest enclosed division. countable, uncountable
- 12 A hillock or similar raised area of terrain. countable, uncountable
"Off on the crest of a swell a moving figure was seen now and then. "Antelope," said the hunters."
- 13 An upward protrusion of strata from whose central region the beds dip quaquaversally at a low angle. countable, uncountable
- 14 A person who is stylish, fancy, or elegant. countable, dated, informal, uncountable
"It costs him no more to wear all his ornaments about his distinguished person than to leave them at home. If you can be a swell at a cheap rate, why not?"
- 15 A person of high social standing; an important person. countable, informal, uncountable
""I am not in Mr Crosbie's confidence. He is in the General Committee Office, I know; and, I believe, has pretty nearly the management of the whole of it." "I'll tell you what he is, Bell; Mr Crosbie is a swell." And Lilian Dale was right; Mr Crosbie was a swell."
- 16 The front brow of a saddle bow, connected in the tree by the two saddle bars to the cantle on the other end. countable, uncountable
- 1 To become bigger, especially due to being engorged. intransitive
"O for a Muse of fire, that would ascend The brightest heaven of invention, A kingdom for a stage, princes to act And monarchs to behold the swelling scene!"
- 2 expand abnormally wordnet
- 3 To cause to become bigger. transitive
"Rains and dissolving snow swell the rivers in spring."
- 4 cause to become swollen wordnet
- 5 To grow gradually in force or loudness. intransitive
"The organ music swelled."
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- 6 increase in size, magnitude, number, or intensity wordnet
- 7 To cause to grow gradually in force or loudness. transitive
"It commenced with a slow crescendo, so irresistibly lugubrious that two of our dogs at once raised their heads and swelled their voices into a responsive tremolo, which may have been heard and appreciated by their distant relatives."
- 8 come up, as of a liquid wordnet
- 9 To raise to arrogance; to puff up; to inflate. transitive
"to be swelled with pride or haughtiness"
- 10 become filled with pride, arrogance, or anger wordnet
- 11 To be raised to arrogance. intransitive
"Why, here he comes, swelling like a turkey-cock."
- 12 come up (as of feelings and thoughts, or other ephemeral things) wordnet
- 13 To be elated; to rise arrogantly.
"In all things else above our humble fate Your equal mind yet swells not into state, But like some mountain in those happy Isles Where in perpetual Spring young Nature smiles, Your greatnesse shows:"
- 14 To be turgid, bombastic, or extravagant.
"swelling words a swelling style"
- 15 To protuberate; to bulge out.
"A cask swells in the middle."
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.
From Middle English swelle, from the verb swellen (modern swell).
From the noun "swell" (a person dressed in an elegant manner).
From the noun "swell" (a person dressed in an elegant manner).
See also for "swell"
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