To grow in bulk; bulge; dilate or expand; increase in size or extent by addition of any kind; grow in volume, intensity, or force: literally or figuratively, and used in a great variety of applications.To belly, as sails; bulge out, as a cask in the middle; protuberate.To rise in altitude; rise above a given level.To be puffed up with some feeling; show outwardly elation or excitement; hence, to strut; look big: as, to swell with pride, anger, or rage.To rise and gather; well up.To increase the bulk, size, amount, or number of; cause to expand, dilate, or increase.To inflate; puff up; raise to arrogance.To increase gradually the intensity, force, or volume of: as, to swell a tone. See swell, n., 4.n. The act of swelling; augmentation in bulk; expansion; distention; increase in volume, intensity, number, force, etc.n. An elevation above a level, especially a gradual and even rise: as, a swell of land.n. A wave, especially when long and unbroken; collectively, the waves or fluctuations of the sea after a storm, often called ground-swell; billows; a surge: as, a heavy swell.n. In music: A gradual increase and following decrease in loudness or force; a crescendo combined with a diminuendo. Compare messa di voce.n. The sign ⟨ or ⟩, used to denote the above.n. A mechanical contrivance in the harpsichord and in both the pipe-organ and the reed-organ by which the loudness of the tones may be varied by opening or shutting the lid or set of blinds of a closed box, case, or chamber within which are the sounding strings, pipes, or vibrators.n. Same as swell-box, swell-keyboard, swell-organ, or swell-pedal. See also organ, 6.n. In a cannon, an enlargement near the muzzle: it is not present in guns as now made.n. In a gunstock, the enlarged and thickened part.n. In geology, an extensive area from whose central region the strata dip quaquaversally to a moderate amount, so as to give rise to a geologically and topographically peculiar type of structure.n. In coal-mining, a channel washed out or in some way eroded in a coal-seam, and afterward filled up with clay or sand. Also called, in some English coal-fields, a horse, and in others a want; sometimes also a horse-back, and in the South Wales coal-field a swine-back.n. A man of great claims to admiration; one of distinguished personality; hence, one who puts on such an appearance, or endeavors to appear important or distinguished; a dandy: as, a howling swell (a conspicuously great swell).n. In a stop-motion of a loom, a curved lever in the shuttle-box, which raises a catch out of engagement with the stop or stop-finger whenever the shuttle fairly enters the shuttle-box, but which, when the shuttle fails to enter, permits such engagement, thus bringing into action mechanism that stops the loom. Compare stop-motion.First-rate of its kind; hence, elegant; stylish.
