bulge
/ˈbʌldʒ//ˈbʌldʒ/
bulge noun: an object which is sticking out from a surface; a swelling, protuberant part; a bending outward, especially when caused by pressure.
Noun
bulge (plural bulges)
- An object which is sticking out from a surface; a swelling, protuberant part; a bending outward, especially when caused by pressure.
- a bulge in a wall
- There was a bulge in my pocket where I kept my wallet.
- Synonyms:
- swell
- The bilge or protuberant part of a cask.
- A rounded fleshy mass, such as on a camel or zebu.
- Synonyms:
- hump
- The bilge of a vessel.
- The outline of a (usually erect) penis visible through one's clothing.
- Max looked down and sure as crap, his bulge was huge, and he started to stammer and stutter and without hesitation said, Holy crap Sandy, look at what you do to me.2010, Micky Livingston, Seventeen Inches, →ISBN
- As his bulge begins to swell once again, her hand strokes the length of it through his pants.2012, D.H.Clark/I.B.Long, A Grasp for Life: The continuing story of Howard Walker, →ISBN, page 75
- Synonyms:
- basket, crotchbulge, crotch tent, cockbulge, dick print, girlbulge, junk, lunchbox, manbulge, mooseknuckle
- A sudden rise in value or quantity.
- A second bulge in prices occurred during September 30 — October 9. The rise of prices up to October 3 was in part apparently a technical adjustment of the markets, a reaction to the preceding decline.1930, Stanford University, Wheat Studies of the Food Research Institute, volume 7, page 204
Verb
bulge (third-person singular simple present bulges, present participle bulging, simple past and past participle bulged)
- To stick out from a surface without breaking it.
- He stood six feet tall, with muscular arms bulging out of his black T-shirt.
- The wind actually stirred the cloth on the chest of drawers, and let in a little light, so that the sharp edge of the chest of drawers was visible, running straight up, until a white shape bulged out; and a silver streak showed in the looking-glass.1922, Virginia Woolf, chapter 1, in Jacob's Room
- (of a container, etc.) To have the surface stretched by something pushing out; to swell; to belly.
- The submarine bulged because of the enormous air pressure inside.
- You will return from work one day to an empty, echoing apartment, and the neighbors will tell you that B was last seen driving away in a bulging moving van.1977 December 10, Robin E. Smith, “Lesbian Version of 'Breaking Up Is Hard To Do'”, in Gay Community News, volume 5, number 23, page 12
- To bilge, as a ship; to founder.
- Fatal to Man! at once all Ocean roars,
And scattered navies bulge on distant shores.1739, William Broome, “The Battle of the Gods and Titans”, in Poems on Several Occasions, London: Henry Lintot, page 253
- Fatal to Man! at once all Ocean roars,
bulge meaning in Tamil, Malayalam and Kannada
bulge in Tamil
- பரு வீங்கு, புடைப்பு, வீக்கம்
bulge in Malayalam
- മുഴ, വീക്കം സംഭവിക്കുക
bulge in Kannada
- ಉಬ್ಬು, ಡುಬ್ಬ, ಗುಬುಟು, ಊತ, ಬೀಗು, ಊದು
Examples of bulge in a sentence
- It amazes him how indiscreet drug dealers can be—with the bulges in their socks and their melodramatic handovers—despite the presence of security guards.2018 February, Robert Draper, “They are Watching You—and Everything Else on the Planet: Technology and Our Increasing Demand for Security...
- The collapse happened within three weeks of an examining engineer observing that a bulge in the brickwork had increased since a previous inspection.2024 February 21, “Network News: Safety changes recommended after train hits collapsed wall”, in RAIL, number 1003, page 19:
- He walked right up to me, the knife poking him in the abdomen, just above his bulge.2017, Dee Dawning, Extramarital, →ISBN:
- This absurdly tight skirt clearly shows too much bulge (along with hip bones, tummy, specks of dust etc).2020 November 11, “What’s it like to be a post-orchiectomy non-op trans woman”, in elilla & friends’ very occasional blog thing, archived...
Synonyms of bulge
7 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Forms of bulge
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | bulges |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | bulges |
| present participle | bulging |
| past participle | bulged |
| past | bulged |
Origin of bulge
From Middle English bulge (“leather bag; hump”), from Old Northern French boulge (“leather bag”), from Late Latin bulga (“leather sack”), from Gaulish *bulga, *bulgos, from Proto-Celtic *bolgos (“sack, bag, stomach”). Cognate with bilge, belly, bellows, budget, French bouge, German Balg, etc. Doublet of budge, and from the same root as belly and bellows. See also budget.
Words formed from bulge
Phrases with bulge
Words that rhyme with bulge
Questions about bulge
- What does bulge mean?
- Bulge means an object which is sticking out from a surface; a swelling, protuberant part; a bending outward, especially when caused by pressure.
- What is bulge in Tamil?
- Bulge in Tamil is பரு வீங்கு, புடைப்பு, வீக்கம். See Bulge meaning in Tamil.
- How do you use bulge in a sentence?
- It amazes him how indiscreet drug dealers can be—with the bulges in their socks and their melodramatic handovers—despite the presence of security guards.
- What part of speech is bulge?
- Bulge can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce bulge?
- Bulge is pronounced /ˈbʌldʒ/ (UK).
- What is the plural of bulge?
- The plural of bulge is bulges.
Words near bulge in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: bulge (page history and authors); bulge (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); bulge (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); bulge (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-bulge.wav, LL-Q1860 (eng)-Wodencafe-bulge.wav.
Cite this entry: “bulge.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/bulge. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.