swole

Adjective

swole (comparative swoler, superlative swolest)

1. (dialectal, chiefly African-American Vernacular) Swollen, enlarged.
   • Well, we git him into the cook-car between us, and git him stretched out on the table and some water on him. He's kind of a sorry sight what with the black eye and swole lip he got earlier in the evenin' and now a lump on his head the size of a hen's egg where the potato masher's hit him.1929 May, Harry G. Huse, “The One Big Union”, in The Frontier: A Magazine of the Northwest, volume IX, number 4, page 338
   • Hell fahr, I bet my head is so swole with law I oughta be jedge and make them lawyers yore-honor me all day long, till cows drop coon-hounds stid of calves and bulls grow tits.1950, Robert Penn Warren, World Enough and Time: A Romantic Novel, New York, N.Y.: Random House, page 370
   1. (dialectal, slang, chiefly African-American Vernacular) Of a person: having large, well-developed muscles; muscular.
      • I ain't swole enough, brah. I gotta work out in the gym more.
      • I will find something to slit my throat or hang some sheets from the ceiling or make one of these big, swole niggaz in here so mad at me that they break my neck.2005, Kalisha Buckhanon, “February 11, 1990”, in Upstate, New York, N.Y.: St. Martin’s Press, →ISBN
   2. (dialectal, slang, chiefly African-American Vernacular) Of a person: erect; having an erection of the penis; sexually aroused, hard.
      • her titties got me swole.
      • You'd like him a lot. Big and all swole up thinking about you. What kind of panties you got on, Olive?1978, Bruce Eliot [pseudonym; Edward Field and Neil Derrick], The Potency Clinic, New York, N.Y.: Bleecker Street Press, →OCLC
2. (figuratively) Full (of something); bursting with.
   • Sourdough went on to explain the occasion for the festivity. "The Popplewells are so swole with pride now they got the upstairs house finished that they got to give a house-warmin'."1925, Dorothy Scarborough, The Wind, New York, N.Y.: Grosset & Dunlap, page 119
   • Honey, I'm all swole up with pride. Here's the horrible part. You're going to have to stay here and meet Norman.1951, Jean Kerr, Eleanor Brooke, King of Hearts, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday & Company, Inc., page 54
3. (figuratively) Extremely proud or arrogant.
   • Strangers weren't sure she was drunk, but I knew. Granny got braggish when drunk. She got swole up about herself. When she took to bragging on her thoughts and notions it was time to jump from the station wagon and walk or brace for a crash.2001, Daniel Woodrell, The Death of Sweet Mister: A Novel, New York, N.Y.: Marian Wood Books, →ISBN, page 146
   • Just shut your hole and listen, swole-headed prick.2008, David Fuller, Sweetsmoke, London: Abacus, →ISBN, page 232
4. (figuratively, usually) Upset; experiencing strong negative emotion.
   • Every once in a while, maybe twice a year, Bessie gets all galled under the britchin' about something [...] Usually over some triflin' little thing that don't amount to a hill of beans, like I won't wash my feet or something, but she gets all swole up like a snakebit pup and says she's leavin' me...1956, Charles Williams, chapter 4, in The Diamond Bikini (Gold Medal Books; s607), Greenwich, Conn.: Fawcett Publications, →OCLC; republished [New York, N.Y.]: Open Road Media, 2012, →ISBN
   • She could pitch drunks out in the street like horseshoes and before then I'd never thought of her in a lovely way, she being big and thick, but now I saw her in Pugh's office peeling off her Wranglers and showing her dimpled thighs and I just got all swole up with lonesome.2006, Alex Taylor, “The Name of the Nearest River”, in American Short Fiction, Austin, Tex.: University of Texas Press, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 34; republished in The Name of the Nearest River: Stories...