swell

/swɛl/

swell verb: to become larger, fuller, or rounder, or expand in size or shape, usually as a result of pressure from within.

Verb

swell (third-person singular simple present swells, present participle swelling, simple past swelled or (dialectal) swole or (dialectal) swoll, past participle swollen or swelled)

(intransitive) To become larger, fuller, or rounder, or expand in size or shape, usually as a result of pressure from within.
- My ankles had swelled in the heat.
- O for a Muse of fire, that would ascend
  The brightest heaven of invention,
  A kingdom for a stage, princes to act
  And monarchs to behold the swelling scene!1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life of Henry the Fift”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount...
Synonyms:

balloon
(transitive) To cause to become bigger.
- Rains and dissolving snow swell the rivers in spring.
- Mildly it [the wind] kist our sailes, and, fresh, and sweet,
  As, to a stomack sterv’d, whose insides meete,
  Meate comes, it came; and swole our sailes, when wee
  So joyd, as Sara’ her swelling joy’d to see.1633, John Donne, “The Storme”, in Poems, London: John Marriot, page 57
Synonyms:

distend
(intransitive) To grow gradually in force or loudness.
- The organ music swelled.
(transitive) To cause to grow gradually in force or loudness.
- It commenced with a slow crescendo, so irresistibly lugubrious that two of our dogs at once raised their heads and swelled their voices into a responsive tremolo, which may have been heard and appreciated by their distant relatives.1880, Felix Leopold Oswald, Summerland Sketches, page 57
(transitive) To raise to arrogance; to puff up; to inflate.
- to be swelled with pride or haughtiness
(intransitive) To be raised to arrogance.
- Why, here he comes, swelling like a turkey-cock.1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life of Henry the Fift”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount...
- […] you swell at the sight of tartan, as the bull is said to do at scarlet.1814 July 7, [Walter Scott], chapter IX, in Waverley; or, ’Tis Sixty Years Since. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh: […] James Ballantyne and Co. for Archibald Constable and...
To be elated; to rise arrogantly.
- In all things else above our humble fate
  Your equal mind yet swells not into state,
  But like some mountain in those happy Isles
  Where in perpetual Spring young Nature smiles,
  Your greatnesse shows:1662, John Dryden, To My Lord Chancellor Presented on New-Years-Day, London: Henry Herringman, page 5
To be turgid, bombastic, or extravagant.
- swelling words a swelling style
To protuberate; to bulge out.
- A cask swells in the middle.

Noun

swell (countable and uncountable, plural swells)

The act of swelling; increase in size.
A bulge or protuberance.
Increase of power in style, or of rhetorical force.
- Concentrated are his arguments, select and distinct and orderly his topics, ready and unfastidious his expressions, popular his allusions, plain his illustrations, easy the swell and subsidence of his periods […]1826, Walter Savage Landor, Imaginary Conversations, 2nd edition, London: Henry Colburn, Volume I, Conversation 6, p. 128
A long series of ocean waves, generally produced by wind, and lasting after the wind has ceased.
- the heave of a heavy ocean swell
- There was a great, smooth swell upon the sea.1881–1882, Robert Louis Stevenson, chapter 24, in Treasure Island, London; Paris: Cassell & Company, published 14 November 1883, →OCLC
A gradual crescendo followed by diminuendo.
- He was thinking; but the glory of the song, the swell from the great organ, the clustered lights, […], the height and vastness of this noble fane, its antiquity and its strength—all these things seemed to have their part as causes of the thrilling emotion that accompanied his thoughts.1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter V, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC
A device for controlling the volume of a pipe organ.
A division in a pipe organ, usually the largest enclosed division.
A hillock or similar raised area of terrain.
- Off on the crest of a swell a moving figure was seen now and then. "Antelope," said the hunters.1909, Joseph A. Altsheler, chapter 2, in The Last of the Chiefs
An upward protrusion of strata from whose central region the beds dip quaquaversally at a low angle.
(dated, informal) A person who is stylish, fancy, or elegant.
- It costs him no more to wear all his ornaments about his distinguished person than to leave them at home. If you can be a swell at a cheap rate, why not?c. 1850, William Makepeace Thackeray, “The Kickleburys on the Rhine”, in The Christmas Books of Mr. M. A. Titmarsh
- He was dressed in a flashy style, not unlike what is popularly denominated a swell.1887, Horatio Alger, chapter 9, in The Cash Boy
Synonyms:

dandy, dude, toff, barbermonger, beau, blade, blood, buck, carpet knight, cockscomb
(informal) A person of high social standing; an important person.
- "I am not in Mr Crosbie's confidence. He is in the General Committee Office, I know; and, I believe, has pretty nearly the management of the whole of it."
  "I'll tell you what he is, Bell; Mr Crosbie is a swell." And Lilian Dale was right; Mr Crosbie was a swell.1862 September – 1864 April, Anthony Trollope, chapter 2, in The Small House at Allington. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Smith, Elder and Co., […], published April 1864, →OCLC
- “I,” said Binet, “once saw a piece called the ‘Gamin de Paris,’ in which there was the character of an old general that is really hit off to a T. He sets down a young swell, who had seduced a working girl, who at the end———”1886, Gustave Flaubert, chapter XIV, in Eleanor Marx-Aveling, transl., Madame Bovary: Provincial Manners […], London: Vizetelly & Co., […], →OCLC, part II, pages 239–240
Synonyms:

toff
The front brow of a saddle bow, connected in the tree by the two saddle bars to the cantle on the other end.

Synonyms:

pommel, fork

Adjective

swell (not generally comparable, comparative sweller, superlative swellest)

(dated, not comparable, usually) Fashionable, like a swell or dandy.
- We pay the express, $5 a day our new agents are making and wearing the swellest clothes besides; old agents after one season make twice as much.1912, Popular Mechanics, page 20
(Canada, US, dated, not comparable, slang, usually) Excellent.
- ...you are my devoted friend too. You do more and work harder and oh shit I'd get maudlin about how damned swell you are. My god I'd like to see you... You're a hell of a good guy.1927 Mar. 31, Ernest Hemingway, letter to F. Scott Fitzgerald
- Jeff swaggered over to Ned Beaumont, threw his left arm roughly around his shoulders, seized Ned Beaumont’s right hand with his right hand, and addressed the company jovially: “This is the swellest guy I ever skinned a knuckle on and I’ve skinned them on plenty.”1931, Dashiell Hammett, The Glass Key, page 176

Adverb

swell (not comparable)

(Canada, US, informal) Very well.
- “That lousy ring wasn’t worth no grand. I did swell to get two centuries for it.”1929, Dashiell Hammett, chapter 12, in Red Harvest
- “[…] Last August, when I left The Walls, I figured I had every chance to start new. I got a job in Olathe, lived with my family, and stayed home nights. I was doing swell—”1966, Truman Capote, In Cold Blood, New York: Modern Library, published 2013, Part 3, p. 251

swell meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

swell in Hindi

intransitive: to become bigger, especially due to being engorged: सूजना sūjnā

swell in Marathi

intransitive: to become bigger, especially due to being engorged: सुजणे sujṇe

swell in Urdu

to swell, be swollen: سوجنا sūjnā

More languagesFewer languages

swell in Bengali: ফোলা phōla
swell in Telugu: ఉబ్బు ubbu, వాచు vācu, ఉప్పొంగు uppoṅgu, ఉబుకు ubuku
swell in Malayalam: വീർക്കുക vīṟkkuka, പെരുപ്പിക്കുക peruppikkuka, ചീർക്കുക cīṟkkuka
swell in Kannada: ಉಬ್ಬುವಿಕೆ, ಉಕ್ಕಿರುವಿಕೆ, ಬಾತುಕೊಳ್ಳುವುದು, ಉಬ್ಬರಿಕೆ
swell in Punjabi: ਸੁੱਜਣਾ sujjaṇā
swell in Gujarati: સૂજવું sūjvũ
swell in Sanskrit: क्षोदस् kṣodas
swell in Sinhala: ඉදිමෙනවා idimenawā
swell in Assamese: ফুলা phula
swell in Arabic: اِنْتَفَخَ intafaḵa, وَرِمَ warima
swell in Malay: membengkak
swell in Indonesian: membengkak
swell in Persian: ورم کردن varam kardan, آماسیدن âmâsidan
swell in Thai: บวม buuam, โป่ง bpòong, พอง pɔɔng
swell in Vietnamese: sưng

Examples of swell in a sentence

’Tis low ebb sure with his Accuser, when such Peccadillos as these are put in to swell the Charge.1687, Francis Atterbury, An Answer to Some Considerations on the Spirit of Martin Luther and the Original of the Reformation, Oxford, page...
Now they were faced with the problem of a northerly blow, which could soon send a heavy swell clean into the bay.1956 September, F. F. Nicholls, “Neyland, A Forgotten Harbour”, in Railway Magazine, page 632:
The Tilbury-Gravesend foot passenger ferry fights its way through a high swell on the river Thames on February 16 2022.2023 February 8, Barry Doe, “Birmingham & West Midlands Atlas is a fine production”, in RAIL, number 976, page 63, photo caption:
Meanwhile you get to think yourself a devil of a swell—you and the gods!1906, Gilbert Parker, chapter 8, in The Trespasser:

All 40 example sentences with swell

Synonyms of swell

balloon
distend
dandy
dude
toff
carpet knight
dood
fashionable
fast man
fine gentleman

30 more synonymsFewer synonyms

All synonyms of swell

Forms of swell

Verb
third-person singular present	swells
present participle	swelling
past	swelled
past participle	swollen
past participle	swelled
past (dialectal)	swole
past (dialectal)	swoll
Noun
plural	swells
Adjective
comparative	sweller
superlative	swellest

Past tense of swell: swelled

Plural of swell: swells

Origin of swell

From Middle English swellen, from Old English swellan (“to swell”), from Proto-West Germanic *swellan, from Proto-Germanic *swellaną (“to swell”), of unknown origin. Cognate with Saterland Frisian swälle (“to swell”), West Frisian swolle (“to swell”), Dutch zwellen (“to swell”), Low German swellen (“to swell”), German schwellen (“to swell”), Swedish svälla (“to swell”), Icelandic svella. The adjective may derive from the noun.

From Middle English swelle, from the verb swellen (modern swell).

From the noun "swell" (a person dressed in an elegant manner).

Words formed from swell

Phrases with swell

Words that rhyme with swell

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about swell

What does swell mean?: Swell means to become larger, fuller, or rounder, or expand in size or shape, usually as a result of pressure from within.
What is swell in Hindi?: Swell in Hindi is सूजना (sūjnā). See Swell meaning in Hindi.
How do you use swell in a sentence?: ’Tis low ebb sure with his Accuser, when such Peccadillos as these are put in to swell the Charge.
What part of speech is swell?: Swell can be a verb, a noun, an adjective or an adverb.
How do you pronounce swell?: Swell is pronounced /swɛl/.
What is the past tense of swell?: The past tense of swell is swelled.

Words near swell in the dictionary

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-swell.wav.

Cite this entry: “swell.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/swell. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.