swell
/swɛl/ verb B1- 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.
- To cause to become bigger. · Rains and dissolving snow swell the rivers in spring.
- To grow gradually in force or loudness. · The organ music swelled.
- To cause to grow gradually in force or loudness.
- To raise to arrogance; to puff up; to inflate. · to be swelled with pride or haughtiness
- To be raised to arrogance.
- To be elated; to rise arrogantly.
- To be turgid, bombastic, or extravagant. · swelling words a swelling style
He/she/it swells · Past swelled · Past participle swollen · -ing form swelling
Verb forms
- Base form
- swell
- He/she/it
- swells
- Past
- swelled
- Past participle
- swollen
- -ing form
- swelling
An irregular verb: learn its past and past participle by heart.
Phrasal verbs and expressions
From the library
Anne squirmed off the bed and sat rigidly on a chair beside it, her face swollen and tear-stained and her eyes fixed stubbornly on the floor.
When I saw you come into church last Sunday my heart swelled with pride to think you were my dearest friend.
Girls, sometimes I feel as if those exams meant everything, but when I look at the big buds swelling on those chestnut trees and the misty blue air at the end of the streets they don’t seem half so important.”
Darcy, “There is a very fine old saying, which everybody here is of course familiar with--‘Keep your breath to cool your porridge,’--and I shall keep mine to swell my song.”
Other matches
Learn swell in real texts
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