tumid, a.
(ˈtjuːmɪd)
Also 6 -yde.
[ad. L. tumid-us, f. tumē-re to swell: see -id1.]
1. Swollen; characterized by swelling. a. Morbidly affected with swelling, as a part of the body.
| 1541 R. Copland Galyen's Terap. 2 F j, Varyce (that is to say a tumyde vayne). 1650 Bulwer Anthropomet. 178 Making..the Belly tumid. 1784 Johnson Let. to Mrs. Thrale 12 Jan., My thighs grow very tumid. 1878 T. Bryant Pract. Surg. I. 32 Ulcers..distinguished by their livid colour and irregular tumid border. |
b. Of a swollen or protuberant form; swelling, bulging; in quot. 1659, swollen or puffed out with the wind. In later use chiefly Nat. Hist.
| 1621 G. Sandys Ovid's Met. xi. (1626) 221 Who, with the Father of the tumid Maine, Indues a mortall shape. 1659 T. Pecke Parnassi Puerp. 132 Tumid Sail-cloaths gratifi'd our Sight. 1819 Stephens in Shaw Gen. Zool. XI. i. 1 The upper mandible with a soft and tumid membrane at its base. 1828 J. E. Smith Eng. Flora II. 97 Styles short and close in the flower;..their bases tumid. |
2. fig. esp. of language or literary style: ‘Swelling’, inflated, turgid, bombastic.
| 1648 Boyle Seraph. Love xx. (1700) 126 Such expressions may seem somewhat tumid and aspiring. 1760 Jortin Erasmus II. 200 A puerile performance, in a poetical, tumid, and idolatrous style. 1809 Byron Bards & Rev. xiv, Turgid ode and tumid stanza. 1877 Symonds Renaissance in Italy v. 272 His Greek style is at the same time tame and tumid. |
b. ‘Big’, pregnant, teeming. rare.
| 1840 De Quincey Style iii. Wks. 1860 XI. 252 It is tumid with revolutionary life. 1850 Blackie æschylus I. Pref. 6 Greek..is a language..tumid with luxuriant growth and overgrowth. |
Hence ˈtumidly adv., in a tumid manner (lit. and fig.); ˈtumidness, tumidity.
| 1688 Boyle Final Causes Nat. Things, Vitiated Sight 259 Her eyes did not always retain the same measure of tumidness. 1822 J. Parkinson Outl. Oryctol. 164 A multilocular, tumidly discoidal and elliptically spiral shell. 1864 Carlyle Fredk. Gt. xvi. v. (1872) VI. 184 Remarks..of dim tumidly insignificant character. |