▪ I. bulge, n.
(bʌldʒ)
Also 7 bouldge, buldge.
[ME. bulge, a. OF. boulge (also bouge), or ad. L. bulga leathern knapsack, bag, of Gaulish origin. Sense 2, in which there is a variant bulch, may have been influenced by botch n.1, bouch n.; sense 3 seems to be a recent formation from the verb. Sense 4 = bilge, still belongs to the Fr. bouge, but the history of its introduction into English is not known.]
† 1. A wallet or bag, esp. one made of hide; a skin-bottle, a pouch, a purse; = bouge n.1 1. Obs.
| c 1230 Hali Meid. 35 Þe bitte þat beoreð forð as a water bulge. 1623 Favine Theat. Hon. iii. xiii. 523 The Crownes Reuennues..wherewith she would fill her owne Bouldges. |
† 2. A hump. Cf. bulch, botch, bouch. Obs.
| c 1400 Ywaine & Gaw. 260 A ful grete bulge opon his bak. |
3. a. A bulging, an irregularly rounded protuberance.
| 1741 Monro Anatomy 131 A large Tuberosity, or Bulge of the Bone appears. 1856 Kane Arct. Exp. xxix. 396 They have the characteristic bulge of the carbonate-of-lime stalactite. 1861 Wright Ess. Archæol. I. iv. 50 A bulge in the wall. 1879 Le Conte Elem. Geol. 240 A mountain-chain consists of a great plateau or bulge of the earth's surface. |
b. fig. Usu. with the: the advantage or upper hand; the superior position; esp. in phr. to have the bulge on: to have the advantage over. slang (orig. U.S.).
| 1841 Spirit of Times 18 Dec. 498/3 Kate got the bulge on her at the start. 1872 ‘Mark Twain’ Innoc. at Home in Roughing It (1873) xlvii. 332 Well, you've ruther got the bulge on me. Or maybe we've both got the bulge, somehow. 1899 E. W. Hornung Amat. Cracksman 197 We had the bulge before; he has it now. 1963 Wodehouse Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves xv. 120 The Assyrians had the bulge on him. |
c. A slight swell made on the surface by a fish moving through water as it feeds on flies, etc.
| 1878 C. Hallock Hallock's Amer. Club List p. ii, Bulge, the swirl made by a salmon rising to the surface. 1889 F. M. Halford Dry-fly Fishing vi. 122 [The angler] knows only too well that the apparent rises are bulges. 1892 Field 16 July 104/2 The rises, splashes, and bulges of burly brown fish. |
d. A rise in prices or shares. U.S. colloq.
| 1890 Biff Hall Turnover Club 208 There is quite a bulge on June cocktails, and I fear a corner. 1908 G. H. Lorimer J. Spurlock xi. 272 The city house which the Bonsalls had occupied just before the big bulge in Southern Pacific landed them on top. |
e. Mil. A bulging part of a military front; a salient.
| 1927 W. S. Churchill World Crisis 1916–18 ii. xviii. 433 The German line formed a salient or bulge fifteen kilometers deep and sixty-four wide in the original British positions. 1942 Daily Tel. 28 Jan., The Russian officers I met around the Smolensk bulge. |
f. colloq. A temporary increase in volume or numbers; spec. the increased number of children of school age resulting from the rise in the birth-rate at the end of the 1914–18 and 1939–45 wars. Also attrib.
| 1930 Times Educ. Suppl. 26 Apr. 186/2 Accommodation would have to be provided which would not be required when the ‘bulge’ years had passed. 1933 Planning I. xiii. 9 The impending flood of excess juvenile labour (the post⁓war bulge). 1935 Economist 23 Feb. 426/2 A temporary phenomenon, which corrected a ‘bulge’ in the curve without affecting its main upward trend. 1956 Times 2 June 7/7 The school population ‘bulge’ is moving up toward the 11–15 ages. |
4. a. The bottom of a ship's hull. (Now generally superseded by bilge.)
| 1622 R. Hawkins Voy. S. Sea (1847) 135 Shippes have beene put in danger..by a hole made in the bulge. 1689 Lond. Gaz. No. 2168/4 The Turkey Merchant was..driven ashore, where she stav'd in her Buldge. c 1850 Rudim. Navig. (Weale) 101 Bulge or Bilge, that part of the ship which she bears on most when not afloat. |
b. A protuberance on the hull of a ship to increase stability or to protect against under-water attack (cf. blister n. 2 c).
| 1919 Chambers's Jrnl. Aug. 543/1 Immunity from the evil effects of torpedoes and mines is sought by the provision of a swelling, commonly called a ‘bulge’ or a ‘blister’, below the water-line on each side. 1920 Glasgow Herald 10 Sept. 8 The modified ‘bulge’ for the protection against under-water attack. |
5. bulge-water, -ways. = bilge-water, -ways.
| 1735 Desaguliers in Phil. Trans. XXXIX. 48 The Stench and foul Air from the Surface of the Bulge-Water. 1777 W. Wright ibid. LXVII. 508 By some called the bulge-water tree. c 1850 Rudim. Navig. (Weale) 116 The heel..is cleated on the bulgeways. |
▪ II. bulge, v.
(bʌldʒ)
Also 6 boulge.
[f. bulge n.; see the variants bilge, bouge, bulch vbs.]
I. † 1. a. trans. To stave in the bottom of a ship, cause her to spring a leak; = bilge v. 1. Obs.
| 1563–87 Foxe A. & M. 281/1 In which fight..were three of the Genowaies ships both boulged and soonke. 1686 W. de Britaine Hum. Prud. §9. 46 Labouring to buoy up a sunk Ship of anothers, [he] bulged his own Vessel. 1782 in Nicolas Disp. Nelson (1846) VII, Add. iv, Fearing, from the great swell..it [the wreck] might bulge the ship. 1821 Byron To Murray 7 Feb., Falconer's ship was bulged upon them. |
b. transf.
| 1827 Hone Every-day bk. II. 1341 It was not a fair fall, as only one shoulder had bulged the ground. |
† 2. a. refl. and intr. Of a ship: To suffer fracture in the bilge; to strike (on or against) so as to damage the bilge. Obs.
| 1581 J. Bell Haddon's Answ. Osor. 452 b, So doe they also in the same shyppe bulge themselves most of all. 1595 Sir A. Preston in Hakluyt's Voy. III. 579 The rest bulged themselves. 1611 Beaum. & Fl. Scornf. Lady iii. i, Forc'd by a tyrant storm, our beaten bark Bulg'd under us. 1695 Luttrell Brief Rel. (1857) III. 508 The Henry..bulg'd upon a rock, and lost all her cargo. 1774 Goldsm. Hist. Greece I. 275 Their vessels..bulged furiously one against the other. 1796–7 Coleridge Poems (1862) 13 It bulged on a rock, and the waves rushed in fast. 1807 Robinson Archæol. Græca iv. xviii. 403 The ship received no damage by bulging against rocks. |
b. transf.
| 1677 Hale Prim. Orig. Man. 348 If..Planetary Bodies should bulge and fall foul one upon the other. |
II. Connected with bulge n. 2, 3, protuberance.
3. a. intr. To form a protuberance, to swell out; esp. in an irregular, clumsy, or faulty manner; e.g. as a wall of which the surface projects beyond the top and bottom.
| 1677 Moxon Mech. Exerc. (L.), The side of a wall..that bulges from its bottom or foundation, is said to batter. 1703 Maundrell Journ. Jerus. (1721) Add. 10 The thin crust of Salt upon the surface bulged up. 1787 G. White Selborne ii. 6 An oak..bulged out into a large excrescence about the middle of the stem. 1833 I. Taylor Fanat. vi. 165 If the dyke of despotism had not bulged and gaped. 1868 Lockyer Heavens (ed. 3) 211 The globe of Mars..bulges, like our Earth, at the equator. |
b. Of a fish: to make a bulge (see prec. 3 c). Hence ˈbulger, ˈbulging vbl. n. and ppl. a.
| 1889 F. M. Halford Dry-fly Fishing vi. 116 A fish taking caddis, shrimp, or snails is said to be tailing, from its tail appearing at intervals above water,..when feeding on larvæ or nymphæ it is described as bulging, from its motion through the water. Ibid. 123 A bulging fish is feeding and looking out for food. Ibid. 124 At times trout bulge at shrimp, snail, and caddis. 1889 Sat. Rev. 18 May 612/2 Mr. Halford..mentions a short way with bulgers, which he condemns as unsportsmanlike. 1892 Field 4 June 838/2 The fish were smutting or bulging on the shallows. 1904 Westm. Gaz. 13 Dec. 4/2 The question of herrings ‘bulging’, as it is called. |
4. trans. To make protuberant.
| 1865 Sir J. Herschel in Intell. Observ. No. 46. 248 By bulging them upwards. 1866 Morning Star 22 July A purse bulged with Austrian florin notes. |
5. intr. To rush in, make a rush for. Also trans. (causative). To cause to rush off. U.S. colloq.
| 1834 Crockett Narr. Life xiv. 96 My dogs..bulged in, and in an instant the bear followed them out. Ibid. xvi. 105 As soon as we struck, I bulged for my hatchway. a 1867 H. Woodruff Trotting Horse Amer. (1868) xxii. 207 Brooks and Harry Jones bulged them [sc. the horses] off in the lead at such a rate I was forced to let them take the pole on the turn. 1884 ‘Mark Twain’ Huck. Finn 372 Here comes a couple of the hounds bulging in from under Jim's bed. |