swollen, ppl. a.
(ˈswəʊl(ə)n)
Forms: see swell v.
[Strong pa. pple. of swell v.]
1. a. Increased in bulk, as by internal pressure; distended, filled out; esp. morbidly enlarged, affected with tumour; also, of a distended form, bulging, protuberant.
| c 1325 Song of Merci 162 in E.E.P. (1862) 123 We loue so slouþe, and harlotrie, We slepe a[s] swolle swyn in lake. 1538 Elyot, Tumidus,..swollen. 1558 Warde tr. Alexis' Secr. 23 b, To heale swollen knees or legges. 1590 Spenser F.Q. ii. i. 13 Her swollen eyes were much disfigured. 1598 Bp. Hall Sat. iv. i. 69 His pouting cheeks puff vp aboue his brow Like a swolne Toad toucht with the Spiders blow. 1683 Prior Pastoral 14 Nor let those sighs from your swoln bosom rise. 1688 Holme Armoury ii. 4/2 æolus..an ancient Man with swolne Blub Cheeks. 1742 Collins Oriental Eclogues ii. 63 The silent asp shall creep..Or some swoln serpent twist his scales around. 1816 Byron Prisoner of Chillon viii, I've seen it on the breaking ocean Strive with a swoln convulsive motion. 1838 Dickens Nich. Nick. xix, The swollen veins stood out like sinews on Ralph's forehead. 1839 F. A. Kemble Resid. Georgia (1863) 61 Upon this great tray are piled the swollen..cotton bags. 1884 Bower & Scott De Bary's Phaner. 519 Plants which, in their wild form, have thin roots, but in many cultivated varieties are provided with fleshy swollen roots. 1890 Retrospect Med. CII. 326 The swollen, vascular state of the tongue. |
b. Of a body of water:
cf. swell v. 1 b, 2 b, 3 b.
| 1652 Mayne tr. Donne's Epigrams lvi. 9 Here the swoln sea views the inferiour ground. 1794 Mrs. Radcliffe Myst. Udolpho l, The swollen torrents that descend from the heights. 1856 Ruskin Mod. Paint. v. xvi. §20 Cliffs..of which every thunder-shower dissolves tons in the swoln blackness of torrents. 1913 G. M. Trevelyan J. Bright Introd. 1 His oncoming was as the surge of the full swollen tide, not of the sea in storm. |
c. Increased in amount or degree.
| a 1631 Donne Elegies xi[i]. 110 At thy lives last moment, May thy swolne sinnes themselves to thee present. 1871 R. H. Hutton Ess. (1877) I. 61 The inroads of unjust and swollen powers. 1911 G. Elliot Smith Anc. Egyptians ii. 15 The writings that..fill the swollen shelves of our libraries. |
2. fig. a. Said of a feeling or mental state such as causes a sense of distension or expansion, or of a person affected with such a feeling, etc.;
esp. inflated with pride, puffed up.
| c 1386 Chaucer Clerk's T. 894 With humble herte and glad visage, Nat with no swollen thoght in hire corage. 1412–20 Lydg. Chron. Troy iv. 4889 Eneas Of Ire & rancour so [a]meved was Ageyn þe kyng, with a swollen herte. 1592 Soliman & Pers. iii. ii. 15 And here my swolne harts greef doth stay my tongue. 1625 J. Robinson Observations xxii. 130 Of them I have known some so swoln in the mouth, as they have thought, that if they gave their Servant a better name, then Sirra, or Boy, they lost of their authoritie. 1697 Dryden æneid vi. 251 Swoln with Applause. 1838 Dickens Nich. Nick. xii, His swollen heart almost bursting. |
b. Of language: Turgid, inflated, bombastic.
| 1605 1st Pt. Jeronimo i. i. 56 Let him..Stretch his mouth wider with big swolne phrases. 1783 Blair Lect. xviii. (1812) II. 27 The swoln imagery. a 1834 Coleridge Shaks. Notes (1849) 49 Swoln panegyrics. |
c. swollen head: excessive pride, or a person suffering from it; also, a hangover.
colloq. Cf. swelled ppl. a. b.
| 1899 N. Gould Landed at Last vi. 59 You have got a swollen head this morning... Had too much to drink last night. 1922 F. Hamilton P.J., Secret Service Boy vi. 242 You don't strike me, somehow, as being liable to swollen head. 1928 Daily Express 23 July 9 British film-producers..are..annoyed with me for saying that their swollen-headed outlook was the root-trouble... I feel certain that the swollen heads will bring about many crashes in British film-production. |
3. Comb., as
swollen-cheeked,
swollen-eyed,
swollen-faced,
swollen-headed, etc.
adjs.| 1591 Percivall Sp. Dict., Carrillado, *swolen cheeked. 1837 Carlyle Fr. Rev. iii. i. vii, A man bodily and mentally swoln-cheeked. |
| 1930 E. Pound XXX Cantos xv. 67 Ἠέλιον τ' Ἠέλιον blind with the sunlight, *Swollen-eyed, rested. 1977 N. Sahgal Situation in New Delhi xvi. 153 The girl raised her head, swollen-eyed. |
| a 1618 Sylvester tr. Dicher's Lat. Verses Wks. [Grosart] II. 337/2 The boy'strous billows Of *swolne fac't Auster. |
| 1647 H. More Min. Poems, Exorcismus iv, Those Eastern spatterd lights..And that *swoln-glowing ball. |
| 1928 *Swollen-headed [see sense 2 c above]. 1983 D. Francis Danger i. 13 Chasing personal glory. Stupid, swollen-headed, lethal human failing. |
b. Special combination.
swollen shoot, a virus disease of cocoa trees, spread by mealy bugs and distinguished by swelling of the young shoots, leading to the death of infected trees.
| 1936 W. F. Steven in Gold Coast Farmer V. 144/1 A new disease of cocoa..has provisionally been named ‘Swollen Shoot and Die-back’. 1950 Times 2 Feb. 9/2 We shall test our proposed method for the prevention of swollen shoot disease of cocoa in the Gold Coast, using systemic insecticides. 1972 P. F. Entwistle Pests of Cocoa x. 170 At the time of discovery of swollen shoot disease planting in the Eastern Region was still expanding. |