† ˈtympanous, a. Obs.
[f. tympan-um or tympan-y + -ous.]
Swollen as with a tympany; usually fig. inflated, puffed up; turgid, bombastic; hollow, empty, vain.
| 1624 Middleton Game at Chess ii. i, His proud tympanous master, swell'd with state-wind. 1635 Heywood Hierarch. iv. 208 A Puny shall assume the name of Poet; And in a Tympanous and Thrasonicke stile [etc.]. 1648 Symmons Vind. Chas. I p. ii, Those new hopes being likely to prove tympanous. 1660 Waterhouse Arms & Arm. 26 That tympanous humour that swells up..light minds. 1669 Cokaine Poems 164 Her tympanous belly. |